The Friday Five

It has been quite some time since I’ve done a Friday Five (apparently my last one was October 16!) Yikes!  Oh well…let’s get to it.

1. I am on vacation!   Next week is March Break here in Ontario, and as has been tradition for the last 9 or so years, we are off to Okemo Mountain in Ludlow, VT for our annual ski week with friends and family.  It should be an interesting trip, since the weather isn’t exactly cooperating for skiing.  While Okemo makes snow and has some of the best conditions in the East right now, they can’t do much when it’s well above freezing!  The snow is melting and the forecast continues to look warm for the week (those temps are in Celcius, by the way)
   
2. From the slopes to the beach!  When we get back from Okemo, we are home for a day or so, and then we are off to Cuba for a week of fun in the sun.  We went to Cuba last year with some friends in May, and they wanted to go back.  This week works well since Easter is in there, so the kids only miss a few days of school.   We are going back to the same resort – Iberostar Mojito.  It is not the best resort we have ever been to, but it’s cheap, clean and will do the trick.  We had a good time there last year, so we’re pretty confident we will again.  Two more families are joining us this year, so we are pretty much guaranteed to have a good time!. Can’t wait for this view again!
   
3. We are smack in the middle of the CrossFit Open.  Tonight I will be hitting Friday Night Lights at our gym to do 16.3.
   
   This should be an interesting one, since I’m pretty sure I can’t do a bar muscle up.  I’ve actually never done a jumping chest to bar pull-up either, so that will keep things fun!  I’m thinking I will end up going scaled for this, although, there have been lots of video’s posted on the gym facebook page of people getting their first bar muscle ups, so I may have to take a little time to give that a try.  I’m pretty sure I can be at least this graceful: (click the image to be taken to the video..it’s quite funny)
   

4. I’ve been a reading machine!  While my blogging record for the year has been pitiful, my reading game has been on point!  I finished my 20th book early this morning (after midnight while reading before going to sleep).  I’ve enjoyed all but one book that I read.  I did not like book 19 – How Should A Person Be, by Sheila Heli.  I just couldn’t get into it.  I thought about stopping, but it was supposed to be good, and I saw it on a list of 21 books from the last 5 years every woman should  by the Huffington Post, so trudged through.  I was so happy to finally be done.  In the end, I have no idea how a person should be!
5. I’m hoping to stick to my macro plan while on vacation.  I’ve been doing a pretty good job lately of sticking within my macro ranges.  The scale has not been plummeting, but I’m feeling pretty good, sleeping like a rock, and feeling strong in the gym.  I realize that there will be some indulgences on vacation (beer and Vermont Sharp Cheddar while at Okemo) and blender drinks in Cuba, but I’m hoping I can eat well around those treats.  I’m also going to pack my workout gear for both trips. I know for a fact I will have to do at least 1 workout in Cuba since 16.5 happens while I’m there and scores need to be submitted before I get back.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s a simple workout since I’m going to be at the mercy of the resort gym.  I’ve looked online, and from what I can tell, they have a rowing machine and some “free weights” which I hope means barbell and plates.  Dave Castro, if you are reading this, please make 16.5 7 minutes of burpees, then I won’t need any equipment at all!

Happy Friday, everyone.

If you are doing the Open, how’s it going so far?  

The Friday Five

For a short week, this week seemed to go on forever!  TGIF!  Time for a Friday Five!

1.  I am 100% on the Toronto Blue Jays bandwagon!  I will admit, for the most part, I am not a big baseball fan.  I watched the Jays back in their glory days when they won back to back world series in ’92 and ’93, but haven’t kept up much since then. That is until recently.  These guys are on fire and since I started watching more in September, I can’t get enough of them.  And then Wednesday night happened.  HOLY COW!  That was the most exciting baseball game I have ever seen.  It had everything…for an excellent and humorous summary of the game check out this article from NBC Sports.  Jose Bautista ROCKS!

TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 14: Jose Bautista #19 of the Toronto Blue Jays throws his bat up in the air after he hits a three-run home run in the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers in game five of the American League Division Series at Rogers Centre on October 14, 2015 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 583944595 ORIG FILE ID: 492684094

I will be glued to my TV tonight at 8:07 for Game 1 of the ALCS vs Kansas City Royals.  Let’s go, Blue Jays!!!  #cometogether

2.  I am doing horribly with my plank challenge.  It pretty much isn’t happening.  I lasted maybe 5 days and then haven’t done it since 😦  not good, but oh well.  I know I really should work on this skill, since I suck at it, and getting a stronger core would help me in the gym, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to do it daily.  I thought maybe a plank challenge would get me to do it, but apparently it wasn’t the right motivation and didn’t have enough accountability for me to stick with it.

3.  I am doing amazing with my mobility challenge!  I signed up for the 5 day a week version of the monthly member challenge at my CrossFit gym.  We are 2 weeks in and I have met my goal for both weeks.  This challenge differs from the plank one in that there is a google doc that we go in and fill in each day when we complete our 20 minutes of mobility.  This seems to be enough accountability to keep me going.  Plus, stretching and mobility feel so good that I don’t mind doing it.  I’ve even brought a lacrosse ball to work and roll my feet while I work.  I’m actually rolling as I type this post!

4.  I’m creeping slowly towards my goal of 30 books read in 2015.  I’ve finished 24 books, so only 6 left.  I’ve read some good ones…see here for the full list.

5.  I had a rough class at CrossFit.  I went to the 4:30 class and all was good.  We worked on Power Snatch for strength and they felt good.  Coach said I had good bar path and the lifts felt good.  The MetCon was 2 separate EMOMs:
I used 55# for the snatches and they felt good.  Really worked on keeping a nice straight bar path.  Still lots of room for improvement, but was pretty happy with them today.  For the second EMOM I did 5 pull-ups a round, since I still can’t link together more than 3 at a time and my coach wanted me to still get a bit of rest each round.  They were feeling pretty good and then on the 4th set of pull-ups, this happened:
OUCH!  When it happened I could tell it was a bad one.  It is deep and it bled quite a bit.  That was the end of my pull-ups, so I just did air squats for the last round.  Let me tell you, washing it up after class stung like a mofo!  I’ve loaded it up with antibiotic ointment and covered it with a big band-aid, but I can still feel it.  Hopefully it heals up quickly, but I’m pretty sure Toes To Bar in tomorrow’s WOD won’t be happening for me.  I will give it a shot, but I’m thinking candlesticks might be in my future instead.  The rest of tomorrow’s WOD shouldn’t bother it – back squats for strength and then row, burpees and double-unders for the MetCon.  Time will tell 🙂

I’m off to watch the Jays kick Kansas City’s ass.  Go Jays, Go!

Happy weekend, everyone!

The Friday Five

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Friday Five.  Let’s see if I remember how to do this!  🙂

1.  I’m still reading.  I got back into regular reading last year and really liked it, so I’m trying to keep it up in 2015.  My goal is to read 30 books this year.  I’m moving towards that nicely, with 7 books already read to date.  To see what they are…click here.  I’m currently reading The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules,  by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg.  It’s about a group of retirees living in a retirement home who are less than thrilled with their living conditions so decide to get themselves thrown in jail where they think life will be better.  I’m about half way through and it’s not great, but not bad.  2.  I’ve done something to my wrist.  I’m not sure how, or what exactly is wrong, but holy crap did it ever hurt on Wednesday.  I had a massage Tuesday night and my RMT gave my arm a little stretch and my wrist cracked, as it always does, and all was good.  First thing Wednesday it was fine, but them mid-morning it started to feel a bit jammed and was really “cracky” when I moved it.  Eventually it started to hurt…A LOT. I should have maybe taken the night off from CrossFit, but I needed to meet my pull-up coach to get caught up on my program since I was away last week and missed our final session.  Plus, the WOD looked really good and I wanted to get my workout in.  My pull-up program was okay.  My grip wasn’t the best and I only did about 2/3rds of each exercise to not push it too much and just get familiar with the movements.  My wrist ached, but didn’t feel too bad.  Then it was time for my regular 8:30 class.  I knew it was not going to go well when I couldn’t do the push-ups in our warm up drill.  The WOD had lots of grip and push movements, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to do it.  Coach Jesse modified the WOD for me, so I at least got a good workout in without too much wrist stuff.
The DB bench press were the worst part of that, and hurt a bit just getting the DB up into position.  By the end of it, my wrist was pretty sore and by the time I got home it was killing me.  Getting out of a sweaty sports bra with only one hand was a challenge!  I iced it and took some Ibuprofin and went to bed.  It was a bit better when I woke up Thursday morning but still not quite right.  Luckily I was scheduled for some acupuncture on my traps with my Naturopath Thursday afternoon, so i had her take a look at my wrist and she did some work on it too.  She also put some Kin Tape on it for some additional support and pain relief.
It is still pretty sore today.  Hopefully I can modify tonight’s WOD a bit…there are 150 push presses in it…not sure my wrist is up for that!

3.  I’m sort of doing the Whole Life Challenge again.  I did the challenge in the fall and the organizers had a few issues with some things, so they offered a free entry to the New Year’s challenge.  I figured what the heck and joined again.  I’m not being to strict with things this time.  Really just sticking to my original plan for eating clean most of the time and limiting my treats.  I’ve had a few extra lattes this week, but more or less I’m on track.  I’m taking the hit for eating non-WLC approved things, but that’s fine.  I’m just using it as a way to stay motivated and not fall off the wagon!

4.  I’ve signed up for The Open!  I lived to tell about last year’s open so figured why not torture myself again!  I’m interested to see what the scaled versions of the workouts look like.  That might be a better stream for me than the RX, but I guess time will tell.  The first workout gets announced Thursday Feb 26.  My gym is doing Friday Night Throwdowns again this year. This was a ton of fun last year and really made The Open a great community event last year. Hopefully this year will be even more fun!
5.  I’m so happy it’s Friday!
I will be spending much of my weekend at a hockey arena.  Nick has a tourney that is local-ish, so we will be driving to a few rinks in the area.  Jacko has his  usual game Saturday and practice Sunday.  That doesn’t leave much time for anything else, but should be fun all the same.

Happy Weekend!
Got anything excited planned?

Have you signed up for The Open?

The Friday Five

It’s Friday!  Phew!

Here are this week’s Friday Five:

1.  Today is the last day for the Whole Life Challenge!   It’s been a pretty good 8 weeks, but I am so ready for this challenge to be over!  I don’t want to feel guilty for having a latte or a piece of cheese.  I just found the food restrictions of the challenge a bit too much.  Dairy and wheat don’t bother me, so eating them once in a while won’t hurt me.  I generally don’t eat much sugar, but I’ve missed making recipes with honey and maple syrup.  So glad I can have some of my favourite recipes again.  Everything in moderation, right!

We have the final measurements and WOD tomorrow morning.  I know on the scale at home as shown movement in the right direction, but I’m more interested in my measurements.  Hopefully they’ve moved in the right direction too.  I will know tomorrow at 10am!

2.  I had a rough day at CrossFit yesterday.  I had a few medical appointments yesterday morning and since I was working from home I planned to attend CrossFit at noon.  My appointments, of course, ran late (sitting in a lab for an hour didn’t help that!), so I only had time to rush home and change into my workout gear and head to the gym.  I grabbed a banana to eat on the drive and off I went.

The strength portion of the WOD was 3×2 push jerk and 3×2 split jerk  After the warm up and stretching, my partner Joanne and I started working on our push jerks. We did a few warm ups with the empty bar and then started on the push jerks.  We did 65, then 85, then 95.  I managed the first rep of the 95 okay, and then didn’t quite make the second rep and dropped the bar. Together Joanne and I grabbed the bar to put it back on the rack…apparently I said something like “nope” as I got the bar up to the rack, so Joanne came over and grabbed the bar and I fainted and dropped to the floor.

I had no idea what happened and it was a little confusing when I woke up and there were 4 people hovered around me.  I guess the lack of food in my system, holding my breath during my lift and the quick movement of my head from down my the bar to up by the rack was just a bit much and down I went.   I was no worse for wear, just had a bit of a sore jaw from the fall and I bit my tongue a bit.  Needless to say I didn’t get to the split jerks and I didn’t do the MetCon.  Instead, I chilled on the gym couch, had a bottle of water and eventually ate a Larabar to get my blood sugar up a bit.

I felt okay, but just to be safe I skipped hockey last night.

3.  Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse,,, I get home from the gym and this happened:
Yep, I came home to heat up my Eat Savage Butter Chicken, and sliced my thumb taking the lid off.  I was not impressed!  But the slice was totally worth it.  It was delicious.
And their paleo naan bread it to die for.  If they sold it as a separate side dish I would totally buy it and make sandwiches with it.

4.  My husband sent me this video…it’s hilarious!

This is especially funny for me since I’ve been having a lot of large group conference calls lately.  It’s not quite as bad as this, but there is some truth in there!

5.  A month from today I will be playing in the first round of the EWGA Cup in Scottsdale!

I really need to find some time between now and then to hit an indoor driving range.  Can’t let the swing get too rusty!

So glad it’s the weekend.

Got anything exciting planned?

The Friday Five

Happy Friday, kids.  Let’s get right to it!

1.  It’s a long weekend!  It’s Thanksgiving weekend for us in Canada, which means an extra day off on Monday.  Woohoo!!!  We are heading up to the cottage tomorrow afternoon, after my son’s hockey game.  The weather is supposed to be pretty good so hopefully we can get our fall chores done and get out for our annual hike at Red Rock in some sunshine. 

2.  My Whole Life Challenge is going really well.   We are 4 weeks into the challenge (and 4 to go) and I’m feeling good.  The scale is showing some good movement and, more importantly, so is the tape measure!  I’m sticking to the food plan 99% of the time, but allowing myself the odd treat if I really want it and just taking the point hit for it.  I’m finding that by doing this, I don’t feel that I am sacrificing too much and don’t seem to be constantly thinking about things I can’t have.  I enjoyed a delicious chai latte on the drive into work/school with my son this week and I didn’t feel the least bit guilty.  That being said, I will have to decide how badly I want stuffing and pumpkin pie this weekend.  I do have a few indulgence points that I can use, and I may just cash them in this weekend.  I will se how I feel at dinner on Sunday and decide.  I can probably skip the stuffing, but that pie…pumpkin is my absolute favourite, so I may just have to enjoy a piece!

3.  I’ve had a great week at CrossFit.  I was so sore after last Saturday’s anniversary comp (which was tough and fun a the same time), I was afraid to go back to class as I didn’t want the pain to get worse!  But, I went to my usual Monday night class – which has clean and jerk strength work and a metcon of pull-ups, power cleans and thrusters (which I suck at) -  and it actually helped the hurt.  I felt pretty good after class.  Wednesday I had a great class.  There were only 2 of us at the 8:30 class, so I got lots of 1 on 1 attention from the coach and I did the WOD using more weight than I thought I could.  It was tough, but awesome….and I think I have finally figured out how to get under the bar in the squat clean!  I’m about to head to the box in a few minutes for today’s WOD.  I’ve got deadlifts, L-sits, prowler pushes and pull-ups to look forward to. 

 4.  This guy was very helpful while I worked from home today. 

Thankfully, while I had a conference call he stayed curled up on the spare office chair, but since I started writing my blog post he has been all over me!  He’s such a helpful little guy!

5.  I can’t wait to sleep in tomorrow!  I picked a late morning CrossFit class tomorrow so I can sleep in.  I don’t have to be at the gym until 10:30.  I plan on sleeping in a late as I can.  That will probably mean about 8am, but that’s a lot later than usual, so I’m stoked about it.  Now, I just want the rest of this day to be over so I can go to bed!  How sad is that! 

Happy weekend, all!

Got any big plans?

Enjoy your turkey and pumpkin pie if you are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

The Friday Five

I’m not gonna lie, this has been a pretty shitty week for me, and I’m glad it’s over.  Sadly, what is making my week crap isn’t going to go away just because tomorrow’s Saturday.  Anyways, let’s get to it:

1.  I’m coming to the end of the first week of the WLC.  So far, sticking to the challenge has been pretty easy.  I haven’t eaten anything processed and I really don’t have any cravings, so all is good.  I’ve been active with CrossFit, ball hockey, and golf, so meeting my daily workout requirements has been easy.  This week’s lifestyle challenge has been 10 minutes of daily meditation.  In past challenges I have hated this, but this week, I am really enjoying taking the time to just “be present and aware”.  I found an app that has little reminders and “practices” that pop up throughout the day for 2 minutes of meditation breaks here and there and this week I’ve found them helpful, so I guess that’s good.  Tomorrow the lifestyle component changes to drinking half our body weight in ounces of water.  This isn’t tough for me since pretty much since September when I did my first WLC I always have a water bottle with me and drink tons of water every day.

Yesterday I finally did the WLC preliminary WOD.  It was:

I have been dreading this WOD since the challenge started.  I wasn’t able to do it with the group since my son had lacrosse last Saturday when the WOD was being done.  I wanted to do it last Sunday, but just couldn’t drag my butt out of bed.  Then I finally planned to do it last night, before my mobility class.  I sucked it up, tied up my sneakers, set my phone timer for 11 minutes and headed out the garage doors at the gym and ran.  I HATE running!  Really, I have no idea how I ran  5 or 6 half marathons and a full marathon before.  Anyways, I hauled by butt around 4 laps of the gym building and then went inside for the rest.  I managed to complete the squats, sit-ups, push-ups and 5 burpees.  Hopefully in the next 7 weeks I can improve my run speed, which was my big limiting factor for this WOD, so I can have more time for the other fun stuff.  Did I just say burpees were fun?

2.  Ball hockey started this week!  I played my first ball hockey game of the season Monday at 10pm…a late game!  It was a great workout – especially since I did a CrossFit class from 8:30-9:30 before heading to the rink for the game .  Ball hockey is all running.  There is no coasting and man, did I missed my skates!  We ended up losing 3-0, but we still had tons of fun.  Between a CrossFit WOD that had running in it, and the running in the ball hockey game, I had no problem at all reaching my 10,000 step goal with my FitBit! 

3.  Golf started this week too!  I am so happy to be back out on the golf course!  My game this week was nothing to write home about (although, I will blog about it!), but I still had a great time.  I got a chance to see friends who I haven’t seen all winter and the weather was actually not too bad, so we had a great night on the course.  I ended up shooting a 60, which is pretty bad, but we played the back 9, which is the tougher of the nines at RedCrest, so I’ll take the 60 for the first time out. 

I had 2 blow-up holes with 9’s on them, which didn’t help my score at all.  I put 2 drives into the lake on the same hole…which sucked!  But despite the 9’s and losing a few balls, there were a few good things too.  My driver was working not too badly.  My left curve did make an appearance, but for the most part, my drives went fairly straight with a bit of a fade, which is okay.  I just wish I knew what I was doing when it goes straight and what I’m not doing right when it hangs a giant left.  One of the girls in my foursome Tuesday night, who is a great golfer, gave me a little tip to just pause for a second at the top of my swing.  I tried it (when I remembered) and it did seem to help it go straighter, so hopefully I will remember that when I’m back out there next week. 

Here’s a video that Cardinal has put together that gives you a bit of an idea of the course.  It really is a beautiful course and I’m looking forward to spending my Tuesday afternoons there this summer.

4.  People seem to like Oprah!  Since I’m on the Whole Life Challenge, I can’t enjoy my usual Starbucks Grande, Non-Fat, No Water, 5 pump, Extra Hot Chai Latte.  Instead I will have regular tea.  Yesterday, I picked up a Zen tea on my way back to the office from lunch.  These days the sleeves have Oprah quotes on them.  This is the one I got on my tea yesterday, which I posted to Instagram. 

The text is small, but it says “ trying to find my Zen while @Oprah tells me to be more splendid, be more extraordinary, and use every moment to fill myself up.  @Starbucks #teatime”  Normally my Instagram  posts get a few likes…this one is now up over 120 likes.  It’s just a picture of a cup of tea!  I’m guessing Oprah might have something to do with the popularity of this one! 

5. I’m looking forward to the weekend.  As usual, we have a busy weekend planned.  I’ve got CrossFit tomorrow morning, Jacko has a lacrosse game tomorrow mid-day, hubs is going up to the cottage to help his mom get the water running and hook up the satellite TV for the season, at some point I need to menu plan and grocery shop, and I think I’m hosting a little Mother’s Day Brunch for us, my sister’s family, my mom (who happens to be in town watching my sister’s kids while she was away at a work conference), and probably my sister’s MIL.  Should be fun. I think I’m going to make the prosciutto wrapped frittatas from NomNomPaleo’s Food for Humans, sweet potato hash, some bacon (because you can’t have brunch without bacon!), maybe some WLC friendly oatmeal muffins, and likely some pancakes for the kids, since my niece and nephew absolutely LOVE pancakes!  We’ll have some fruit in there just to round it all out.  I can’t wait…it’s going to be delicious! Guess I can kiss my sleep in goodbye…I’m going to need to get up early…and…

Sounds like I’ve got a jam-packed weekend ahead of me! 

What’s on tap for your weekend?
Got any big plans for Mother’s Day?

The Friday Five

Hello all.  Happy Friday, happy weekend, and happy vacation for me!

Let’s get right to it!

1.  I am officially on vacation!  Wohoo!!!!!  We are off to Vermont for our annual March Break ski trip to Okemo.  This will be our 6th or 7th year going.  We’ve got a great group going that may even be getting bigger as I type as friends of ours are seeing if they can book something last minute and come too.  It is going to so much fun.  This is one of our best weeks of the year.  The hill is awesome, we have a fantastic room, the hot tub is just outside our building, and the snow is going to be the best we’ve had for a few years. We are packing the truck and loading everything up so we can head out bright and early tomorrow morning.  We start skiing Sunday afternoon and I CAN’T WAIT!!!  It’s #OkemoTime! 

2.  Today was the last day of the Whole Life Challenge.  The GroundWorx group will be doing the final WOD tomorrow morning.  Since I will be heading to Vermont, I did the workout this morning.  It was the same workout we did 8 weeks ago:

In the preliminary WOD, my score was 238.  My final score was 247…so a slight improvement.  My calories weren’t as good time on the bike (my legs were still feeling the squat WOD I had on Wednesday night).  Last time I got 44 cals, this time 42..so just a few shy. This time I was able to do more reps of the rest of it though.  Prelim WOD I made it to 69 push-ups.  Today I got to 80..so some improvement there.  By the end of the 11 minutes, my shoulders were toast…they were burning like mad.  Overall I’m pretty happy with the WOD.  I improved, not by a huge amount, but a little bit better, which is going in the right direction.  We also had to take our measurements – waist and hips. I lost 3 inches off my waist, and 2 off my hips…and I think that’s fantastic! 

Overall, I’m happy with how my Challenge went.  I was very good with my eating, found lots of great new recipes, resisted temptation MANY times, and saw improvements in my workout, measurements and even dropped 8 lbs on the scale. 

Now, the trick will be to keep going with these new, healthy habits now that we aren’t checking in online daily.  I know with our March Break trip, my eating will not be perfect and I will be enjoying a few cold Coronas when I come off the hill each day, but I will do my best and not stress over it.  I will get back to clean/paleo/challenge eating when we get back home. 

3.  I did 14.2 tonight.  This WOD was not meant for me:

I have never done 10 reps at 65lbs in total, let alone in a row, and I can’t do C2B pull-ups.  We spent a good part of class stretching and warming up for the WOD.  In warm-up I did try 65lbs and was able to do it with good form.  I only did 2 in warm-up since I didn’t want to use my good reps when they didn’t count.  We also warmed up our pull-ups.  I attempted some C2B in the warm-up, but barely got my chin over the bar.  I wasn’t too worried about it.  My goal for the WOD was to get through the first 10 OHS.

When it came time for the WOD, I did 8 great OHS in a row.  Number 9 was dicey, and I didn’t get low enough so it was a no-rep.  I dropped the bar and regrouped.  I didn’t want to try snatching that much weight up, so I cleaned and pressed overhead, then lowered to behind my head, adjusted my grip to the wider snatch grip and them pressed up into the overhead position.  I kept thinking “keep it all tight” and managed 2 good, clean OHS to get to my 10!  I had about 1:45 left to try to get a C2B.  I got close, but it didn’t happen .  After the time was up, I kept trying and on my third or 4th extra try I GOT IT!  I felt the bar touch my chest!  It was awesome!  I tried to do another one, but never quite got it again.  That’s okay.  At least now I can say I’ve done 1 Chest to Bar pull-up.  It’s too bad I didn’t get it during the 3 minutes of the WOD as I’m thinking that 1 C2B rep will be a big rep in the scores.  Oh well.  I’m happy with my 10.

4.  I’m on vacation!

5. I’M ON VACATION!!!  For the next week, you can find me on one of these trails…if in doubt, check WarDance.  It’s my favourite trail on the mountain.  It’s often closed for racing, so whenever it’s open I’m on it!

Now I need to go finish packing.  We head out tomorrow morning at 8am. 

I will try to post a bit while I’m away, but no guarantees. If you want to see what I’m doing, be sure to follow me on Instagram @collerhead as I’m sure I will be posting pictures…it’s just so easy!

Did you do 14.2?  How did it go?

The Friday Five

I know I say this every time we get to Friday…but thank God!  I am so ready for the weekend!

And since it’s Friday, that means it’s time for …

1.  I saw this on a blog I read (Jerome’s Kitchen) and thought it was funny. 

2.  I’m entering into the last week of the Whole Life Challenge.  I am looking forward to the challenge being over.  Not so much so I can eat things again – which will be nice – but mostly because I want to see how much progress I’ve made over the 8 week challenge period.  The scale shows some progress and I’m into jeans I haven’t worn in quite a while, so I’m pretty sure I’ve lost some weight and inches.  I’m curious about what the gym scale reads and what my measurements are next Saturday.  I’m also very interested to see if my WOD score improves from the preliminary score I got on Day 1.  I sure hope so!

For this last week of the challenge, our lifestyle challenge is “Intentional acts of kindness”.  Kind of a “pay it forward” sort of thing.  I’m looking forward to this one.  I’ll have to hit Starbucks drive thru one day on my way to work and buy coffee for the car behind me. 

3.  Yesterday was my youngest son’s birthday.  For the last 2 months, I think just about every day, he has told either my husband or me that he wants drums for his birthday.  He would send random texts to us and remind us every day at bedtime that that’s what he wanted.  Hubs and I were not thrilled with this idea.  Drums are loud…and expensive.  And what if we get them and he doesn’t play them?  So, we did some investigation and found that a local music store had a special for October.  If you book 6 lessons, they will give you a rental for FREE for those 6 weeks.  This seemed like a fantastic option…so we bit the bullet.  We kept it a total secret from Jackson.

Wednesday night, after dinner, hubs said casually that we needed to go out and asked Jack if he wanted to come.  Jack asked where and we just said it didn’t matter, did he want to come or not.  He decided he would come.  Thank god, because I don’t know what we would have done if he said he didn’t want to come!

So, Jack drove with hubs and I took a separate car.  Two reasons for that…we needed to bring a set of drums home and I was going to CrossFit for the 8:30 class and wasn’t sure how long it would take to get the drum paperwork done and loaded into the truck.  During the whole drive, Jack kept asking hubs where we were going.  Asking about different people’s places and if we were going there.  Rory just kept saying nope.  Finally they turned onto the street that the music store is on and Jack took this big gasp and his eyes got so wide!  As soon as Rory put the car into park Jack took off towards the door…then stopped dead in his track and asked “is it even open?”  We told him to check.  Of course the store was open, and we went in.  Then he stops dead again and says, “Wait, what are we doing here?” We laughed and finally spilled the beans that he was having his first drum lesson in 10 minutes.  He couldn’t stop grinning!  Then we told him that he got a set of drums to take home and use for the 6 weeks and the smile got even bigger!  Here is is anxiously waiting for his teacher to come get him.

While Jack went into the drum room, we headed upstairs to take care of the rental paperwork and get the drums loaded into the truck.  That took very little time, so we headed back downstairs to wait for the lesson to finish.  There is a window in the drum room door, so I was able to snap a few shots of him during the lesson and grabbed a bit of video too.

First drum lesson.

After the lesson we all headed home and the drum kit assembly process began.  We decided to put the kit up in his room since we were worried about them getting damaged if they were in the basement.  There are a lot of hockey pucks flying around down there most days!  I headed off to CrossFit and when I got home, Jacko showed me a little of what he could do.  Not too bad for only 1 lesson! 

Practicing his “AC DC Beat”!

Needless to say, he’s thrilled with his present.  The deal is, if he practices every day, and wants to continue, we will get him more lessons, and either rent the drums again, or maybe think about buying him a set of his own.  We’ll see how it goes.  So far…he’s all in!

4.  Did you know that before Jesse Pinkman sold crystal meth, he was pushing Pops! 

5.  I’m gonna Row, Row, Row my WOD later!  There is just a BIT of rowing in today’s WOD. 

I’m not a huge fan of rowing…I’ve got short legs, so rowing is tough for me.  I’m sure by the end of it my legs will be like jello, and I will hardly be able to walk when I get off the rower.  Should be fun! 

If you CrossFit, got any tips on how to be an efficient rower? 
Got any big plans for the weekend?

The Friday Five

It’s the weekend again!  Gotta love a short work week!

Let’s get right to this week’s Friday Five.

1.  The Whole Life Challenge starts tomorrow! 

So, starting at midnight tonight I will be following some different food guidelines, doing some sort of work out every day, stretching every day, taking a fish oil supplement every day, and doing the weekly task every day.  This week’s task is to drink half of our body weight in ounces of water.  This task is a good one, since most day I know I don’t drink enough water. 

I’m looking forward to the diet changes the most.  I had a summer of poor eating and I’m looking forward to getting back to eating clean.  There are quite a few things that are on the “not allowed” list (whole grains, white rice, potatoes, most dairy, sugar, alcohol), but the list of things I can eat is really big and I’m pretty sure I will be able to create lots of healthy, tasty meals using these ingredients.  I’ve opted to do the Intermediate level.  Here’s a quick guideline of what’s allowed or not.  To see the full list, click here.  I’m pretty much allowed any meat or veg I like, as long as it doesn’t contain any added sugar or artificial ingredients.  Fruit is also allowed.  YUM!!!

There is also a benchmark workout for the WLC as well.  I’ll cover that in tomorrow’s post! 

2.  I will be hitting my cookbooks, Clean Eating magazines, and all the recipes I have found online and put into my Pocket,  to find lots of delicious recipes that fit within the WLC food requirements.  I can’t wait to get back to meal planning, grocery shopping, food prep and cooking.  I did far to little of all of those things over the summer.  Seriously, I can’t wait to hit the couch with my iPad and cookbooks and start finding all sorts of delicious things to eat. 

3.  I can’t wait to use my birthday present from my family.  I got a Paderno World Cuisine Spiral Slicer. 

I had seen if referred to on many blogs and I have wanted one for a while, When my birthday was approaching. I kept dropping hints to hubby, and like the great guy that he is, he got it for me!  I opened it this morning.  This came just in time for me to use for my Whole Life Challenge cooking and food prep.  Since pasta is a no go on the WLC program, I can’t wait to turn zucchini, sweet potatoes, and anything else I can think of, into awesome noodles. 

4.  I have a massage later this afternoon, and I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!
My poor old bod is feeing it’s age these days.  I am putting it through quite a bit at CrossFit and it’s letting me know it’s not too happy about some of it.  I say too bad, body.  Suck it up.  I’m not quitting!

5. Lisa, at She’s Losing It, nominated me for a WordPress Family Award.  If you don’t currently follow Lisa’s blog, be sure to go check it out.  She is amazing.  She has transformed herself from being 40lbs overweight to being a lean, mean, fitness model competitor.  I am in awe of her determination, workout ethic, and self control when it comes to diet.  I would love to have half of her levels of each. 

I had never heard of this award before, but apparently it was created for bloggers who are part of the WordPress “family” and take the time to be supportive of other bloggers by giving positive feedback, answer questions and do so in a non-competitive way.

As with any award, there are a few rules to be followed:
1.  Display the award logo on your blog. DONE!
2.  Link back to the person who nominated you. DONE!
3.  Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family. DONE!
4.  Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them. (I will have to do that later…I’ve run out of time now!)

My Nominations:

1.  Not the fat kid in gym class anymore
2.  Crazy, Sweaty Mommy
3.  Chasing the Top
4.  Little Runner Girl
5.  Mommy Go Run
6.  Taylor Made it Paleo
7.  No Longer Working On It
8.  Losing 50 Laps
9.  Veggie Bento Love
10.  Healthier, Happier, More Fit Me (this one really is family…it’s my sister’s blog!)

Phew!  That was a long post!

I hope you all have a great weekend.
Got any big plans?
Anyone doing the Whole Life Challenge?

The Friday Five

This may be my favourite Friday of the whole year so far.  Why?  Because as of today I am on vacation for a week and we are heading to the cottage for the entire time!  I can’t wait to pack up the cars (yes, likely taking 2 cars since we have so much stuff and the kids want to ride in the Miata!) and hit the road!.

But, before then, I’ve got half a day of work, one CrossFit workout and this post to write!  Let’s get to it.

1.  I am addicted to this song – I Remember You, by Queens of DogTown.  Every day this week I have been listening to this song on repeat on my drive home, just cranked, and singing at the top of my lungs.  I just can’t get enough of it.  I always liked the original Skid Row version, as I am a huge Sebastian Bach fan (ever since he was on Gilmore Girls!).  Then the song was featured on Californication as a cover sung by Hank’s daughter’s band.  I downloaded the soundtrack that night and have loved it ever since.  But this week, I just can’t seem to get enough of it.  Love, Love, Love.

Love this song.

2.  I joined the Whole Life Challenge. 

This is a worldwide challenge that runs from September 7th to November 1st.  I’m still not exactly sure what is involved, but I know there is a certain diet to follow, workouts to do, tasks to complete, and measurements to be taken.  I have been curious about the Paleo diet and knew that I needed to become more focused on my diet to see better results at the gym.  This challenge came along at just the right time.  My Box is participating and I have joined their team.  I’m hoping that the motivation and encouragement I get during my WOD’s will also transfer over to this challenge.  I’ve got 35 days to figure it all out and psych myself up.

3. The AirDyne really is Satan’s Tricycle!

My Box recently purchased 4 of these bad boys and have been working them in to quite a few WODs lately.  This is one tough machine. Last night’s WOD had 6 rounds of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off….and it was hell!  They have also started monthly challenges at the Box.  This month’s is 5 min max cals on the AirDyne.  We get entered into a monthly draw for a proshop gift card for each time we complete the challenge and the best men’s and women’s scores also get a prize.  I may skip this month’s challenge since I’m not sure I could do 5 whole minutes.  30 secs on 30 secs off just about killed me last night!

4.  I need to get back to planning my meals and eating clean.  Things have been so hectic this summer that my meal planning and food prep has really suffered.  Hopefully now that ball hockey is finished and things are settling down a bit, I can get back to it.  I should use August to try and get ready for the Whole Life Challenge because that has a whole list of food restrictions – no grains or starchy carbs, no dairy, no sugar or sweeteners, no alcohol, soda or juice, no artificial ingredients or processed foods, – and I really should try to cut back on those things now, so I don’t need to go cold turkey September 7th.

5.  I will try to post while on vacation…but they might just be quick posts of awesome cottage shots like these!

I will be missing a week of CrossFit while I’m up at the cottage, but I will be bringing my kettlebells and my sister and I will be doing a few swing workouts next week.  I’d also like to get a few walks around the point in, just to help make sure I get some exercise in between the Corona’s and s’mores!

Hope you all have a great weekend.  It’s a long weekend for us here in Canada…and it blends right into my vacation.  I can’t wait to get up there!

Happy Friday!
Got any big plans for you regular or long weekend?