Thursday, October 25, 2012

A couple of workouts

Last week I only made it to the box once.  And I went on Wednesday morning of this week. 

I can't wait until I'm at a closer to home box so I can actually train consistently and see those results I saw when I first started.

Friday's Workout

We practiced handstands for the first part of the hour.
Our WOD:
4 x 2 minute rounds, 1 minute rest:
10 pull-ups
10 DB push press, then
HSPU or handstand hold for remaining time

I did 10# dbs for the push press and held the handstand the entire time along a wall.  The times of holding the handstand ranged from 45 secs to 30 secs.  My shoulders were sore all weekend.

 Monday I taught a spin class for an hour and then muscle conditioning for 30 mins.  It felt great to be back on the bike.  I need to find more spin classes to teach.

Tuesday I went for a 2 mile run.  I've signed up for a 10k on Nov 11th and then a 4 miler on Turkey day.  Can't wait.

Wednesday was crossfit.

Front Squat
Here are my weights that I squatted
33(bar) 5reps
63 3 reps
83 3 reps
93 2 sets of 2 reps
98 2 sets of 1 rep

4 x 2 minute rounds, with 1 minute rest

10 burpees
20 double-unders
AMRAP pull-ups

I just realized as I typed this out-the time on the workout was the same as last Friday.  Again another reason that I can't wait to train consistently.  I managed 3 pullups, 2 pullups, 3 pullups and 3 pullups.  My double unders aren't there yet so I jumped 4x as many as the double unders.  The box is low on ropes and I would have liked to practice them but I had a really short rope that kept getting caught on my pony tail.

Today I'm planning on a run and Friday I'm back at crossfit.  Excited to have crossfit 2x in a week.

Friday, October 19, 2012

5k PR

The story behind my Wordless Wednesday photo.

My company was sponsoring a local 5k on Saturday I signed up the weekend before.  I just thought it would be a great excuse to actually get out and run.

I realized on Saturday morning the last time I had run was in August for the half marathon.  So I figured I'd just have fun and enjoy the run.  I knew the area well, I drive by there all the time.  Once I got there, I picked up my packet and went back to the car to drop off the race shirt.  I walked back over to the start line right before 8am when the half marathon was starting.  I got in line for the restroom and waited.  Then I heard that they were delaying the start of the half marathon since there was such a long line at the restrooms.  I was shocked.  I've never seen a race delay because of a bathroom issue.  Then I overheard a race director say the porta potties didn't show up at 7a when they were suppose to. They delayed the half marathon by 15 minutes and our 5k start time was pushed back 10 minutes.

The 5k was benefiting education, so there were tons of kids there.  All ages.  It was great to see them out there and excited for the 3 miles.  I set out in the front, to not trip or be tripped by the kids.  And I settled into a pace.  I had my garmin and my phone set to Nike Running.  After getting off the line, I realized that my garmin was set on bike mode.  Not run mode.  I'm not too familiar with changing the settings, as I don't do it that often so I ran the race in bike mode.

There was a small hill leading to a bridge and the turn around with an equal hill on the other side of the bridge.  My legs felt heavy.  The cool air made my lungs tight and it was a little hard to breathe. 

I didn't see any mile markers except for mile 1.  I'm sure there were some for the half marathon.  Once I turned around and was almost on the last stretch, I realized I would break 30 minutes again.  The first time I broke 30 minutes was in Memphis in July.  So I was happy.

Pushing it that last turn, I looked at the clock and it read 27:12.  I knew I started in the front of the pack so it had to be my time.  I was so shocked and happy.  I grabbed some fruit, water and a goody bag.  They also had chocolate milk for recovery.  I kept moving to make sure my legs didn't cramp up.  I then looked up my last 5k time which was in the 28 minute range.  I had set a new PR for myself.  WOOOT!!

Friday, October 12, 2012

It was real?!!!!

This was amazing last night to watch

Blocked punt to put us at 1st and goal.

They miss a field goal.

Bironas kicks the game winning field goal.

From their twitter feed-https://twitter.com/tennesseetitans/status/256627764659113984

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Another box, another jump

I went to a new crossfit box on Wednesday.  And was actually a little surprised at how different this experience felt from the other two-right as I walked in.

It seemed crowded.  No one was really chatty and I looked lost.  Not only did my GPS put me in the wrong spot, I had no idea where to park or how to get to the actual front door.  I was stopped by someone else looking lost and we found it together.

We did a standard dynamic warm up and then partnered up with medicine balls.  I grabbed a 12 and found a partner.  We did chest pass, side throws and then sit ups with passing the ball as we were sitting up.  I felt my abs right away.

The one thing completely different with this box than any others, there was no olympic lifting done today.  Maybe it was because it was Wednesday or maybe that's how they run all their classes.

Our WOD was Christine.

3 rounds:
500m row
12 BW DL
21 box jumps

A few notes about this WOD.  We had over 12 people in class with only 4 rowers.  Our coach added a run if you didn't have a row machine.  I opted to run-as rowing would have taken much longer.  And BW means body weight.  You want me to deadlift my bodyweight for 3 rounds of 12 reps.  That is insane.  I ended up with 103# on my bar.  And box jumps were on the 20 inch boxes for both men and women.  I did do the 20 inch box. 

I finished in 15:50.  And couldn't stop dripping sweat afterwards.  It was a tough workout.  And by the time everyone was done, it was time to clean up and cash out.  We had 4 sets of 10 reverse hypers on the GHD machine.  After all these abs all week, I need a rest day. 

I was told this box was frequented by many of firefighters, police officers, paramedics and nurses.  So attendance is never constant.  I would miss the olympic lifting if they never do it.  I can see how you can like this box-the WODs are tough.  I'm going back to my original box on Friday.  I've already cancelled with them-though I paid through the end of the month.   I'm going to look if there are any others near me to try out before making a final decision.  Though my gut is telling me this place isn't a contender.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Box'd out

I went and checked out another crossfit box near me.  I attended the Women Only WOD.  It's the same WOD as the rest of the box just only women in the class.

There were 7 of us in class.  And after a dynamic warm up and a 400m run, we went into burpee box jumps, jump rope and scorpions/crossovers. 

The strength portion of today was a front squat.  I didn't know my actual 1 rep max so I guessed 130#.  After looking it up, I did 115 back in Sept.  I'm thinking I've retested this and just didn't write it done.  So I'm fairly close.

We did 85# for 5 reps, 105# for 5 reps and then 110# for 6 reps.  It was a great quad workout.  My quads were a little sore last night during spin so I'm sure they are loving me now.

And for the WOD

10 AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

10 box jumps
10 push ups

I completed 7 rounds with 2 jumps.  The goal of the push ups was to get your chest to the groun, arms and elbows next to your side and leading with your chest (ie no fish flopping).  I did 2 full push ups for 3 rounds and the rest were on my knees. 

And we did a cash out.  Which is usually abs.  We did 75 ab mat situps and then 5 10s hollow holds.  My abs were screaming at the end of the workout.  And it felt great.

I really enjoyed working out with all women.  We were all roughly in the same shape, with people being veterans to crossfit and others being new.  I would likely keep attending the Women's classes if I choose to attend here.  Though they are on Tuesday and Friday.  And sometimes I have to work on Fridays.  I'm sure there's another comparable class that I can take as well.

I have another box to try out tomorrow.  And I've already cancelled my current box-I have 30 days left that I've paid for. 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Current thoughts on Crossfit

Everyone knows that I love crossfit.  It has skyrocketed my confidence, muscle, and self esteem.  I don't think I could give it up if I tried.

When I took this bootcamp coaching job, my schedule went from normal to all wonky.  I love working out at my box in the AM.  It's a great time for me and I loved working out with those that were there at the same time as me.  Recently my box has taken one of the AM times off the schedule and replaced it with an intro class.  I was super bummed.  That meant I had to either get up for a 6am class if I have to teach at 9am or skip that day all together.  I am schedule to go 2x a week and haven't been able to with their schedule change.

When we moved in January, I decided to keep driving to the box that we started at.  Now I'm thinking I need to find a new box with times to actually fit my schedule.  One closer to home and to my work.  Working out in the AM is very important to me.  I've emailed to other boxes closer to me about coming to check out the box before making any decisions.  I do have myself scheduled for 2 classes this week (assuming I'm not asked to sub a class).

I did make it to crossfit Friday.  Here was our workout:

Rope climb practice

AMRAP 12 min
3 rope climbs (12 ring rows)
12 db power snatches
9 handstand pushups

I dreaded going in a little.  I can't seem to figure out rope climb.  Everytime we go over it, it's for like 5 minutes and then we move on.  I tried two different ways today and my feet were just not cooperating.  Luckily we had a modification for the WOD.  I completed a total of 5 rounds.  The DB power snatches were my favorite move of this WOD.  I used 15 lb dumbbell.  And I really focused on the movements here.  I did the handstand pushups on a box with an abmat on my knees.  I'm sure I'll be feeling those tomorrow.


*a little house cleaning-I updated the title and web address of my blog to something that I actually thinks fits.  So please update your readers and/or subscriptions to fitjamie.blogspot.com

Friday, October 5, 2012

Review-Breathe Performance Bedding

I haven't done a product review before.  However, I thought I would write one on these sheets.

Some time ago I developed really bad night sweats.  I sleep on a queen size bed with fans blowing throughout the night (no matter the season).  How my body started to sweat when I was cold, I'll never know.

I tried not drinking caffeine, wearing less clothes to bed, not having the blanket and making sure the fan was directed at me most of the time.  Nothing helped.  With regular sheets, I would wake up soaked with sweat and the sheets would be just gross.  (TMI I'm sure)

We found these sheets by Breathe Performance Bedding and decided to try them.  When I first put them on the bed I felt like they were the same material as all the race shirts we have gotten over the years.  I wasn't so sure about sleeping on that material.

I woke up the next day and wasn't really impressed by the sheets.  They were soft.  And still similar to those race shirts.  I left them on the bed to try them for a longer period of time before making up my mind.

About 2 weeks later I realized that if I did sweat throughout the night, not only were the sheets not wet, I wasn't drowning in wet clothes either.  These sheets were soft and cool when you get into bed.  I still sleep with the fan, more for the noise than the air.  And I'm not sweating as often as I used to.  I don't know if it's a change to my diet or these sheets.  I know that if I do sweat, I'm still comfortable enough to keep sleeping.

It has also been really hot here in Northern CA this week, (totally not bragging) and these have kept us cool.  We don't have AC so we welcomed these sheets as they help keep us cool when it's not cool outside.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Med Balls are the devil

Ouch!

I went to bootcamp this morning to get in a nice cardio workout.  Little did I know, we would do everything with a med ball.

I picked up a 10 lb med ball.  We did a tabata round of V sit ups with the med ball.  Then we had 30 step ups on the bench with the med ball focusing on one leg at a time.  We also did lots of running around carrying the ball.

Having that much extra weight is tough.  I felt it in my shoulders for sure.

We also did another tabata round with lunges while holding the ball overhead with one arm.  And then, the ever popular med ball slams.  We did one arm med ball slams.  Tough!

This week I had the task of taking photos for a demo.  I focused on squat jumps.  I took these photos with a self timer.  And I had quite a few outtakes.  Check out a few



I couldn't tell you if this is me leaving the ground or coming out of the actual jump.  I did manage to get photos for our newsletter.  I had 24 photos to sort through.