Functional Fitness

Lately I've found that I am more able to move heavy (or what's heavy to me...) weights for more reps during workouts, yet my 1 rep max numbers aren't jumping as quickly as they've done in the past. I find this interesting for two reasons:
1. If you think of this in real life scenarios, I'd so much rather be able to carry/drag/lift something over a long period of time, instead of only being able to do it once. Because when the zombies come, and cars don't work anymore, we're going to have to be doing some inventive things!
2. Maxing sucks.

On another note, the weekend warrior workouts this weekend were rough! I actually ripped my hand, which I hadn't done in almost six months. I guess 160+ pull ups will do that to me.

Here's Saturday morning's Defiant wod:
Teams of 4 (we had three girls and one guy)
40 squat clean buy in (95/135#)
100 pull ups
25 clean and jerks (95/135#)
100 wall ball (14/20#)
25 C & J
100 box jumps
25 C & J
40 thrusters (75/95#)
It was a great workout, even though I felt like I had to vomit almost the whole time- sign of a good wod :) The hardest part about team workouts is the rep count, keeping track of who is doing what, and not stopping to figure it out. When we get lost, I'd rather just throw out a number and go with it instead of getting all jumbled. But that may be cheating...

I wanted to stay for Defiant's free workout after that but Dane's Body Shop was hosting a Jack LaLanne celebratory workout:
1,000 pull ups
1,000 star jumps
So this dude did it all on his own in about an hour and a half, with crazy blisters and rips afterward. But we did it in a team of six, where each of us did around 160 reps of each. It was fun, and all of us had a great time with star jumps, and not so much with pull ups, finishing everywhere between 15-30 minutes. I really enjoyed hanging with the crew at Daily Juice afterward, where Aaron read us some Jack quotes like this one:
"Warming up is the biggest bunch of horseshit I've ever heard in my life. Fifteen minutes to warm up! Does a lion warm up when he's hungry? 'Uh-oh, here comes an antelope. Better warm up.' No! He just goes out and eats the sucker. You gotta get the blood circulating, but shit, does the lion cool down? No, he eats the sucker and goes to sleep. And that," he concluded, folding his arms into a variation of the pose, "is the truth."

He sounds like quite the cool cat. Thanks for making me do 16o pull ups on Saturday, Jack!

2011!

"If your goals are comfortable, they're not big enough. Strap on the cojones and go. Play like you're not afraid to lose."

Tonight I did a wod in the backyard.

Warm up:
4 rounds
5 burpees
10 swings 12 kg
5 shoulder dislocates

Barbell Complex (from Atomic and Mountain Athlete):
6 reps each-DL, bent over row, hang power clean, FS, PP, BS, push ups
Then 20 sit ups
5 rounds 45/50/50/55/65
That was a little confusing without a whiteboard to stay on track. I forgot the bent over rows a couple of times.

WOD:
3 rounds
5 thrusters (65#)
10 unbroken burpees
100m-ish sprint
:30 rest
Got this from Mel's blog which she got from CrossFit Austin. I was huffing and puffing on this one- darn burpees!

Lots of work coming up! I'm doing Defiant's REV-olution challenge and I'll be at Atomic Athlete on Fridays. Pumped for 2011!

Pretty Strong

I highly recommend checking out the Pretty Strong blog!

Recap of the All Cities Open

Top three life lessons from ACO:
1. Other than the nerves, plus building enough courage and confidence, the hardest part about competing is figuring out when and what to eat. True story, I was on the verge of vomiting the whole time.
2. I pee a lot. A lot. Maybe I had too much Spark, maybe it was the nerves, but I felt like at every opportunity I had to run off to find the loo.
3. CrossFit athletes GLOW. On the phone with Mom I said, "I look like such a creeper because I'm staring at everyone. But seriously, everyone glows. It's like Greek mythology out here."

Here's the breakdown:

Wod #1: 1 rep max back squat
I was thrown off guard when I was asked at check in what my 1rm back squat was. I meekly said, "Umm, 180?" Sounded good in my head even though I had only done 150#, or 153 (to be exact) the other day with Sally. I always feel decapitated when I do heavy back squats and it's one of my least favorite lifts. Turns out I uttered the right number though (even if it was a lie) because I got paired up with Karen and Katie Russel who I met at the OlyAthlete meet for the first event.
I managed to crank out 160# with some great pointers from Jon, who was my honorary coach for the day.

Wod #2: 4 rounds- 20 sec max wattage row, 40 sec rest, 20 sec chest to bar pull ups, 40 sec rest
Umm, so who's done chest to bar pull ups?! Not me. I ran over to Jon, "Soo I've never done chest to bar before... What's the secret?" This was another event where, with great advice from Jon, I managed, but I am adding row with the damper at 10 and CTB on my list of things to work on. It was a cool wod with the rest programmed in there, of course the 40 sec went by quickly but it was enough to breathe a bit before the next set.

Wod #3: 10 min- Every minute on the minute, squat clean 45% of your 1rm back squat. For the rest of the minute, do double unders.
Turns out that it was great that my back squat was so light because it was used for the clean weight! For this workout, the squat cleans weren't that bad (my weight was 75#) but it was such a leg burner. Going into the competition I would say that I had double unders but coming out, I definitely need to practice them when I'm fatigued. It's one thing to have doubles when you're fresh, but it's a completely different story when you're in round six of a wod.

Wod #4: On about a mile course, run to an 80# sandbag, 15 ground to shoulders, run, 15 70# Russian kettlebell swings, run.
Wheeee doggies was that bag a bia! When they demoed the movement it looked so easy to clean it to your shoulder but when I got to the bag it was almost impossible for me, until I heard two things- 1, Carey said "Bear hug it!" and 2- Jon said "Drop under it!" and then I figured it out! It still wasn't easy and it took me all of 10 minutes just to get through those ten reps but I did it and was able to finish through the rest of the course, though it wasn't in the allotted time cap. I was so impressed watching the later heats master the sand bag, especially Alex!

It was a great event and I liked how the programming had everyone finish at the same time. Thank you Jon for all of your coaching! Thank you Chard for telling me to go and for being a great friend and mentor throughout the event! Thanks Karen for being a great wod partner and battling through the sandbags with me! Lastly, big thanks to Team LLcoolJ, my Jess and Linds, for their everlasting encouragement!

Backyard Barbell

My parents got the Girls Gone Fit Haus a barbell plus metal plates while they were in town. Thank you Mom and Dad! The barbell + Myriam's 12kg kettlebell + Tribe sandbags + 50# kettlebell + random PVC pipe = Lory's Backyard Barbell.

Tonight I broke all of that equipment in and did:

3 rounds
10 burpees
50 double unders

10-1
Deadlift
push press
power clean
All using 65#, not setting the bar down until in between rounds.

3 rounds
15 Russian swings (50#)
10/10 L/R KB snatch (12 kg)
1 dead hang pull up

Whew! That felt great! Just in time for tomorrow's Mustache Throwdown with the guys at Atomic Athlete and Westlake Crossfit. Come join at Zilker park at 9 am! I think the girls are going to try to paint on dirty 'staches, it'll be a sight to see!

And then it was Fall.

It seems like one day I was complaining to Annie about how hot it was and then the next day I was pulling out my heated blanket. Hello fifty degree weather! Fall (winter?) seems especially fun this year in my awesome snatchlife sweater thanks to the beautiful Erika! I'm loving Saturday mornings at the Girls Gone Fit Haus as we run outside to see how cold it is (crops today or shorts?) and squeal back inside to grab more layers.

Tonight at Defiant we did:
1 full snatch from the hip, 1 from the ground, as it got heavier, just from the ground.
55/65/75/85
Turns out I don't know where my pubic bone is. Keith told me my hand should be bit wider and the 85# snatch felt like it just flew up. I remember when 75# snatches were a struggle and it's great to see the progress with oly lifting.

1 full clean from ground, 1 split jerk
75/85/95/105/115

3 rep back squat with the Sall-meister aka my Dream Team member
95/115/125/135/145/155
I haven't back squatted in a long time. I've been working a lot on front squats to improve getting out of the hole of the clean. I'll have to do crossfit Totals again soon to see where my numbers are.

What's coming up? I've got goals to hit 3 non-kipping HSPUs by January, 130# OHS, and I still want to learn how to do butterfly pull ups. Thankfully, I work out with the marvelous Jess K who has been giving me lessons. I can visual myself doing them but when I jump on the bar, my bod wants to kip normally. Circles, Lor, circles.

Guess who is excited to see the new Harry Potter movie??

Bad Day

I had a bad day today. I'm dealing with some stressful things at work, I had a tearful phone conversation with my Mom, I haven't seen my parents that I'm close with in seven months, I'm questioning my goals and I'm questioning the future which all piles on top of me. I don't have these days or even this attitude often but it's still there.

I haven't been to class at Sicfit Austin in three weeks due to schedule conflicts and I debated not even going today. As I walked down Burnet Road to the gym I debated why I do this. Why can't I be like any other "normal" athlete and run Town Lake for my workout? Why can't I just live and not think about goals or the ever elusive muscle up (muscle up handstand push up?!) or paleo/zone or competing or affording Lululemon? I didn't have an answer.

But then I got to class. And for that hour I felt alive. I PR'ed my power clean, did one armed thrusters, one armed floor presses and prowler pushes, all which I had never done before. I got to cheer on teammates as we went through a twelve minute wod, heaving snatch balances and power cleans. I got positive feedback from a great coach about what to work on in the future.

And that future that I was stressing about all day long? It's still there, elusive as ever. But I got to leave the gym with a lighter heart, which is my answer to why I do this. I can throw all the numbers out the window because they don't matter. I'll be doing this for as long as it makes me feel better about myself.