Motivational Monday – Get Off The Couch!

Happy Monday!
As you probably know, I’ve been doing CrossFit for a few years now….and LOVE it!  I faithfully go to class 4 times a week and would go more if I could fit it into my hectic schedule.  I love being in the gym, learning new things, lifting heavy shit, and being inspired by all the other great athletes I work out with.  The hour I spend in CrossFit class is usually one of the best hours of my day.  Then I come home from the gym and tell hubby and the kids all about it.

My kids have come to friends and family days a few times with me, and my youngest has gone to a CrossFit kids class and loved it.  Read about his first class here.  Despite asking for 2 years now, I have never been able to convince hubby to come to the gym with me.  He’s reluctant,  He says he “doesn’t want to drink the kool-aid”.  I was okay with that, so for Christmas a few years ago, I bought him all the stuff he needed to WOD at home – a rack, a barbell, 300 lbs of plates, and we already had a pull up bar, dumbbells, a treadmill, and nautilus machine.  He had everything he need to workout at home.  Except he didn’t.

I threatened him a few times that if he didn’t start using the stuff, I was going to get him a CrossFit membership.  For a few days after that, he would make an effort and head downstairs to workout when I went to the gym.  Then he would stop and assume his usual spot on the couch, watching tv and working on his laptop all night.  Not the most active thing he could be doing!  He does play slo-pitch a few times a month as a spare on a team in the local men’s league, and in the winter he plays hockey once a week with his buddies, but I think he needs to be more active…to get up off the couch and do something.

He has a birthday coming up and I’ve been mentioning the idea of a CrossFit membership as my gift to him.  He’s still not convinced he wants that, but I have finally gotten him to agree to at least give it a try.  So, tonight at 6:30 he is going to come to they gym with me and when I do my WOD with the class, he is going to have a one-on-one introductory session with Coach Ryan and do the CrossFit baseline workout.  (To read about my first visit and my Baseline test, click here). Once hubs does his Baseline, he will get 2 weeks free to try out classes and see what he thinks.  I’m hoping once he tries it he will like it as much as I do and we will get him a membership so we can go to class together and be one of those sickeningly cute CrossFit Couples!  LOL

I will let you know how it all goes.  Send positive vibes around 6:30 please! 🙂

Do you workout with your spouse or partner?  

Motivational Monday

Hey peeps!  Can you believe it is March already?

As I mentioned on Friday, the CrossFit Open started last week.  The first WOD was a 9 minute AMRAP  followed by a max effort clean & jerk.  I opted for the scaled workout, since I wasn’t sure if I would be able to do the 75# snatch.
I was pretty happy with my results:

I was able to do all rounds of the knee raises unbroken and the deadlifts too.  I did pause at few times at the bottom of the snatch but I did do a full snatch, not a ground to overhead (clean + press/jerk), so I thought that was pretty good.  In the end I was 1 snatch short of 6 full rounds.  I was also pretty happy with my clean and jerk.  I eased up to 95# pretty easily, then I tried 105# and cleaned it no problem, but failed to lock out overhead.  I only had a minute or so left, so dropped back to 100 since I was pretty sure I could get that no problem.  I was right, but now I kind of wish I tried 105 again, but I’d never C&J’d that much before, so thought it was smarter to at least get 100#.   That ties the most I’ve ever done, and considering that was after I was exhausted from the 9 minute AMRAP, I can live with that!

I was thinking about trying the RX WOD at home in the basement on Sunday, but I ran out of time and when I tried a few toes to bar, they weren’t feeling that great, so I didn’t bother.  I’m not going to the Games, so I don’t need to worry about my place on the Leaderboard!

I did the WOD during our box’s Friday Night Throw Down.  All the regular members did the WOD in different heats.  I was in the 2nd heat and only had time to stress out watching one group go ahead of me.  Once I got into the WOD I was fine, but I will admit I was pretty nervous waiting for my heat.  After I was done I stuck around to cheer on friends and waited for the coaches and elite athletes to go.  The girls went first, then the guys.  They were so amazing to watch.   They threw the weight around like it was nothing.  They lifted heavy and it was awesome!  They were so inspiring to watch.

I can’t wait until next Friday to do it all again!

In the meantime, tonight I’ve got the Filthy Fifty to look forward to!

They’ve set a 30 minute time cap for this one tonight. I’ve done this workout twice.  March 13, 2013, I finished 7 stations in 35 minutes.  Nov 11, 2013 I finished the whole thing in 37:33 (they had a time cap, but I kept going!).  Hopefully tonight I can knock off the whole thing in 30 minutes.  Fingers Crossed!

Happy Monday!

Did you do 15.1?  How did it go?

Motivational Monday

Happy Monday, peeps!

So, if you are into CrossFit, you know that it’s Open Season.
The CrossFit Open is a 5 week series of WODs that everyone at every level completes and gets ranked against everyone in the world.  To think that I will be doing the same WOD as Camille Leblanc-Bazinet (the winner of last year’s CrossFit Games) is awesome and terrifying at the same time. Camille is a 26 year old CrossFit Pro.  I’m a 47 year old, mom of two, CrossFit wanna-be!

I have no chance of beating Camille.  I know that.  Everyone at my gym knows that.  But you know what?  That’s okay!  It’s not about beating anyone.  It’s about pushing myself as hard as I can and just competing with myself.  Just doing the best that I can.  And that…that’s why I love CrossFit.

The first Open workout gets announced on Thursday.  I can’t wait to see what it is!

Are you doing the Open?

Got a prediction for 15.1?

Motivational Monday

It’s Monday!
This week’s little bit of motivation is a little too close to home for me.

If this is true, I should be one strong chick this week.

Last week was a rough one for me at CrossFit and I had more pain that I really needed.  First, I messed up my wrist on Wednesday:

No idea what I did, but holy cow did it hurt. I had an acupunture treatment on it Thursday, rested it over the weekend, and It’s much better today.  I’m hoping I will be able to do tonight’s WOD (Elizabeth, 21-15-9 squat snatch, ring dips) without any modifications other than scaling the weight and using a band for my ring dips, which I always do.  I will play it by ear and see how it feels.  If it hurts, I will ask my coach what else I can do.

Friday, after modifying the WOD to skip the push press – doing hollow rocks instead (since I didn’t want to use my wrist that much), I ended up hurting my right foot getting off the air dyne.  The WOD was 50-40-30-20-10 push press and calories on the air dyne. I did the hollow rocks and holy crap…they killed!  I was just finished the 30 cals on the air dyne and was getting off when I got my foot jammed between the pedal and the bike.  I didn’t wait for the pedal to stop turning and missed the middle bar as I stepped off and crunch….what an awful feeling!  I could feel so many bones cracking and crunching.  OUCH!  Coach Sav said maybe this was a good place to stop and she got me some ice.  I lay with my foot up on some ab mats for a few minutes and once the pain subsided I gimped my way out of the gym.  Once I got home it was ice and elevation again:
Luckily I was taking Saturday off from the gym since my son had a hockey tournament and I couldn’t make it to class. Aside from some pretty decent bruising on the inside of my foot my the ankle/arch, the top by my toes, and the outside below the ankle it is feeling pretty good.  I’ve been putting Traumeel on it regularly and I think that helped.  I’m almost limp free.

My goal for tonight is to get out of the gym without any more injuries!

Wish me luck!

How’s Monday treating you so far?

Motivational Monday

Well, it seems I am not getting any better at posting regularly.  😦  Not sure I ever will.  Random, infrequent posts seems to be the new normal around here.  Oh well!

Here’s a quick Motivational Monday to kick off the week.

I’ve got a killer workout ahead of me tonight at CrossFit:
I have never done Angie before.  On paper, it looks wicked.  I’m pretty sure I will be doing Ring Rows in place of the pull-ups, and that even sounds killer! But, I will just tackle this beast one rep at a time and hope for the best.

Angie doesn’t scare me!  (Well, maybe a little :))

Happy Monday, peeps!  Here’s to a great week ahead.

Motivational Monday

Happy New Year!

I’ve been a very bad blogger.  It’s been a month between posts!  Horrible, I know, and I’m sorry.  😦  I will try to do better.

To get back into the swing of things, I’m going to keep this Motivational Monday short and sweet.

I’m recommitting to clean eating, avoiding crap, limiting myself to one chai latte a week, and working hard at CrossFit.  I didn’t jump on the January 1 bandwagon, but I’m starting today.

Wish me luck!

How about you?  Are you getting back on track today?  

Motivational Monday

Another Monday!  The weekends just never seem long enough, but I’m actually excited that today is Monday, because that means I get to go to CrossFit tonight….and I can try out my new shoes!  The UPS man came by my office again today and look what he dropped off…

Aren’t they pretty!  I can’t wait to put these bad boys to the test.  Tonight’s WOD has a boatload of thrusters in it…both in the strength portion and in the MetCon when we will do Jackie (1000m row, 50 thrusters, 30 pull-ups).  I hate thrusters with a passion.  Not sure new shoes are enough to change that, but I’m willing to give it a try!

Everyone at the gym keeps telling me that these shoes will change my life.  I sure hope so!
Do you have lifters…are they as good as everyone says they are?

Happy Monday.  Let’s hope the week flies by 🙂

 

Motivational Monday–Finish Strong!

Happy Monday!

As you know, I’ve been doing the Whole Life Challenge.  We are in the final week.  Thank God!  I am so ready for this to be over, so I can go back to eating how I usually do, without so many restrictions. 

For the most part, I eat Paleo or Clean.  I do allow myself the odd treat – can you say Chai Latte! – but for the most part, I stay on track.  But since being on the Challenge, I’m finding that not being “allowed” to have something is making me want it more.  Not so much with meals, since I’m pretty good with planning those out and sticking to the plan, but snacks have been a challenge this time.  I can’t seem to find anything that satisfies my cravings.  I would kill for a chocolate bar.  So far I have resisted, but the temptation is vey bad this week as we have so much leftover candy from Halloween. The weather was crap and we didn’t get many kids at the door, so we only gave out half of what we bought and now I have a giant bowl of chocolate bars on my table tormenting me!

So far I have resisted.  My goal is to make it to the end of the challenge, after the final workout and measurements, and then allow myself to have a mini KitKat and a full-size bag of Peanut M&M’s that my son gave me from his trick or treat bag.

To help with this, I made some Paleo muffins that I can snack on this week:

These are Lemon Raspberry Swirl muffins from The Paleo Kitchen. They are delicious and I’m hoping they will keep me out of the candy bowl! 

I’ve got 5 more days to stick to the program.  I’m going to work hard at CrossFit, try to not break any food rules, and finish strong!

How do you keep yourself motivated to finish strong?

Motivational Monday–FRAN!

Happy Monday, peeps!

I had a great weekend with birthday celebrations for my son, great dinner out with hubby and my sister, and watching my kids play hockey.  Now it’s back to work and the chaos that is my weekday life! 

I’m back to CrossFit tonight at 8:30, where I will get to tackle Fran.

For those not familiar, aside from being a 4 letter word, Fran is a benchmark CrossFit workout of Thrusters and Pull-ups with a 21-15-9 rep scheme.  So 21 thrusters, 21 pull-ups, 15 thrusters, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters, 9 pull-ups.  You are supposed to do it as fast as you can.  RX weight for girls is 65#. 

I’ve done with WOD a few times before:

• Feb 26, 2013 – very early in my CrossFit life, used an empty training bar (15#) and a super thick blue band for the pull-ups.  It took me 7:01.
• July 29, 2013 – moved up to 35# and used a purple (thinner) band for pull-ups.  Time 9:50
• Oct 4, 2013 – this was CFNC’s 3rd anniversary and we did Double Fran.  so 21-15-9-21-15-9.  It was HELL!  I used 35# and the purple band again and it was a brutal 25:18!

We did Fran this past May too, but it I didn’t go to class that day, so I don’t have a very recent Fran time to go by.  One of my CrossFit goals for 2014 was to do Fran RX.  I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet.  65# thrusters are super hard for me and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t finish the WOD in the 10 minute time cap if I tried that weight tonight.  I did the same rep scheme of deadlifts and pull-ups a few weeks ago and managed to do all the pull-ups RX, but since them my pull-ups haven’t been so good.  Hopefully tonight will be a good pull-up night for me.

Regardless, I need to remember this…

I’ll show up, do the work, and hope for the best!  Whatever happens, I’m sure I will leave sweaty, exhausted, and ready for bed!

What’s your Fran time?

Motivational Monday

Wow….has it really been 3 weeks since I’ve posted?   Life got busy, and then I was in Jamaica last week (with no internet access!), and blogging just didn’t happen.

I will fill you in on what’s been going on soon (hopefully tomorrow), but for now, know that once again I have fallen off the wagon with workouts and eating, so once again, it’s time to get back on track.  And here’s how I plan to do it:

• All of my vacations are over (for the most part), and I’m recommitting to my workouts and healthy eating. 
• I’ve got my meals planned for the week and anything I’m cooking at home is paleo or clean.
• I’m taking my water bottle with me wherever I go.
• I’m eating healthy meals and snacks.
• I’ve charge my FitBit and I’m logging in MyFitnessPal again.
• While I’ve taken a few steps back, I’m still way ahead of where I started.
• I had a great WOD tonight to get back into my 4 times a week CrossFit routine.
• Last week was so much fun (friend’s wedding in Jamaica where I ate and drank way too much), but now I’m home and getting back to a good routine.
• My fridge is loaded with fruits and veggies.
• I’m excited to work hard and eat well and see some results. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how I do.  Wish me luck!

Anyone else getting back on track this week too?