"How far can you go?"

I have a picture on my desk that says, "How far can you go?" I like it because my mind wanders when I look at it to African safaris, the CrossFit Games, or any other random image I have floating through my head. But sometimes I have to think, "How far have you come?"

I'm talking specifically in the last eight weeks. When I signed up for Zach's Oly Lifting in April, I did it to fix my cleans. I really struggled with the hang clean during the I Am CrossFit benchmark workout and wanted to fix it. Now eight weeks later, I wouldn't say that I am perfect with the movement but I have a basic foundation for barbell work that I didn't before. Working on Oly lifting has given me increased body awareness where I can feel what went wrong with a lift and how to fix it the next time. Zach still has to come over to me and break things down step by step but overall I've seen a vast improvement.

I've learned the importance of a workout log. Just as we turn our bodies into science experiments for food/nutrition we have to do this for workouts too. I have pages of notes of things Zach and Crystal or other trainers have said to me that made things click. Statements like "fast elbows", "butt down, chest up", or "concentrate" are repeatedly heard at the gym. Writing down during which lift you should hold your breath or what weight you used in a wod makes the workout science experiment even more precise.

What I like so much about Sicfit Austin is that the workouts aren't programmed for going all out, every single time. The programming leads up to strong lifts by preparing you each class for them. For example, last night we did heavy snatch deadlifts. Are snatch deadlifts ever going to show up in a competition? Probably not, but by doing them and challenging myself with the weight used, helps in the long run towards the technique of the first two pulls of the snatch. It's all about the big picture.

On a different subject, here's great summary of a food workshop from the blog world: Cosmo Primal Girl

Post Secret

One of the first blogs that I started reading was PostSecret. Frank Warren uploads postcards anonymous people have written secrets on every Sunday. In college it used to be my routine to wake up every Sunday morning and pull up my bookmarked PostSecret page to read the postcards. Some are sad, some are funny and all give insight to human nature. I no longer have the Sunday morning routine I did in college but I still find the secrets fascinating.

This Sunday my favorite postcard is this:

Quick link for deadlifts

Deadlifts can save your soul. Click!

Wod logging and Day 2

The Tribe is up to great things this summer! Bonita has found a bunch of tough Navy Seal wods for us to get through that will prepare us for an endurance workout we're going to shoot for at the end of July. I've been enjoying working out in the open air with a great group of folks.

On Monday we did:
50 sit ups
50 double unders
50 sit ups
50 walking lunges
50 sit ups
50 box jumps
50 sit ups
Time: 11:47

I was excited to practice my double unders in a workout. My June DU Club with James has me working on them for the next 30 days or so. Last Tuesday I was able to string 17 in a row but in Monday's workout I got in sets of 10ish. They're hard but once you get the rope swinging it's easier to string them together. It's just the beginning that's rough!

Then Tuesday we did:
10 rounds:
15 deadlifts (135/95#)
15 push ups
Time: 21:07

Whewieee! Whenever I see 10 rounds for a workout I'm like how long is that going to take?? The deadlifts felt pretty good, I was able to do almost all the sets unbroken until round 8 where I did 10 reps then 5. The push ups were rough.. I was able to stay on my toes and do them in sets of 5 until about round 7 when I went to my knees. Ouch! I'm feeling it in my arms today.

Then I ran off to Crystal's house for "Be Selfish" Night with the CrossFit Women. It was relaxing to be able to sit with a beautiful group of women and just breathe. I hope that Lauren will continue these nights in the future- I think a bunch of us benefited from the opportunity to get together, share, encourage, and enjoy each other's company.

Other than that, I'm back to Day 2 of the Whole30. After some indulgences this past weekend watching Regionals in Dallas (Go CFC! Congrats Athletes!), I'm pumped to celebrate the next 28 days of clean eating. I still have never gone a full 30 days without a cheat and really want to check this one off of my "To Do" list. Rather than enter it with a "challenge" mindset, I'm focusing on listening to my body as I nourish it with healthy foods. Any one is more than welcome to check in with me to hold me accountable and I'll let you know how I'm doing!

Who'dda thunk?

Alrighty folks, bear with me. I have half written posts about my Level 1 cert, the Whole9 nutrition workshop, Sicfit Austin, and overall food ideas but right now I want to talk about weaknesses.

A few months ago I was a met con lover. I was a happy camper with body weight resistance exercises, box jumps, or short sprints. But when heavy wods showed up on the whiteboard I almost wanted to skip class or would do a workout with a "let's just get this over with" attitude. Then, CrossFit Central changed their programming to add strength sets at the beginning of class. My favorite 20 minute chippers, frolicking around inside and outside of the gym were no longer part of the programming and I had to deal with it. The reason why I didn't like the heavy workout days was because I was bad at them. Seriously, who wants to do something that they're terrible at?

So I didn't have any other choice but to work on it. CrossFit teaches us to work our weaknesses and exposes us to what they are. Tony Budding wrote:

"The goal of CrossFit is increased work capacity across BROAD time and modal domains. Our methods are constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity. Best results are found with a slight bias toward chasing weaknesses, not avoiding them.

This means that we should all train heavy some of the time. We should also train light some of the time. We don't see top performing CrossFit athletes training narrow bandwidths for extended periods: It simply doesn't give the best overall results."

But you know what's funny about training your weaknesses? They become your strengths. The movements that you absolutely can't stand, when practiced over and over again become those that you enjoy and look forward to. You just have to do it.

Guess what I did yesterday? I got to train my weaknesses with Zach at SicFit Austin and I loved every moment of it! Sure, it was hot and sometimes I feel like I'm going to die but I got to throw heavy weight around and try new things. For the first time, I put a clean and jerk together and it was hard but empowering and just gave me an overall sense of accomplishment. Day by day things are getting done at that gym that are going to ripple into all parts of life.

I don't always like the workout whether it be on my own, at CFC, or Sicfit, but you know what? I don't always like broccoli either and I know it's good for me!

Train your weaknesses. You never know what you're going to end up liking!

"Bad Romance"

Disclaimer: I did not come up with this. But I wish I had!

Bad Technique

Sing this to the tune of Lady Ga Ga's Bad Romance. I want to see Sage rap this and Carey Kepler + CFW as back up dancers!

Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique

Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix your bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix your bad technique


Your lifts are ugly

Got Crossfit disease

I’ll fix your everything

But it won’t be free


I’ll fix your lifts

Lifts lifts lifts

Your ugly lifts


No time for drama

No hero workouts

It’s back to basics

Work it from the top down


I’ll fix your lifts

Lifts lifts lifts

Your ugly lifts


You know that you want to

And you know that you need to

To fix that bad, bad technique


I’ll fix your lifts and I’ll get some revenge

For the bastards teaching bad technique

You want to clean and you want to snatch

But it takes a little more than that


Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique

Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix that bad technique


It’s such a horror

Oh there’s no design

It’s almost criminal

You need to refine


Your ugly lifts

Lifts lifts lifts

Those ugly lifts


Your movement’s psycho

With PVC stick

Then with a barbell

It gets really sick


Let’s fix your lifts

Lifts lifts lifts

Your ugly lifts


You know that you want to

And you know that you need to

(Cuz those are freak lifts baby)

To fix that bad, bad technique


I’ll fix your lifts and I’ll get some revenge

For the bastards teaching bad technique

You want to clean and you want to snatch

But it takes a little more than that


Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique

Oh oh oh ohhhh oh oh oh

Caught with bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix your bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix your bad technique


High block, low block baby

Work it, work position, baby


Pockets, mid-thigh baby

Work it to below knee, baby


High block, low block baby

Work it

Work position, baby


Pockets, mid-thigh baby

Work it to below knee, baby


I’ll fix your lifts

And I’ll get some revenge

I’ll fix your lifts

Make the barbell your friend


(Just sing the French here)


Make the barbell your friend

Make the barbell your friend

(Caught with bad technique)

Make the barbell your friend

(Caught with bad technique)

Fix your bad technique


I’ll fix your technique!


I’ll fix your lifts and I’ll get some revenge

For the bastards teaching bad technique

You want to clean and then you want to snatch

But it takes a little more than that


Fix your bad technique

Caught with bad technique

Fix your bad technique

Fix your bad technique

Caught with bad technique


Rah Rah ah ah ah

Roma Ro ma ma ah

Ga Ga oh la la

Fix your bad technique

Hang snatches and "Elizabeth"

This week's workouts have been hard. They're always hard but this week threw me off a little bit. I'm being drilled with technique progressions 2x/week at SicFit which is great and Tuesday and Thursday I got to put the technique to the test in CrossFit wods.

On Tuesday, I got a little ahead of myself. The workout written on the whiteboard was:
21-15-9
hang snatch (65#)
OHS
I loaded up 65#, didn't test the weight, and 3, 2, 1, Go! Rep 1 got to about my nose, shook it out, rep 2 got to my eyebrow height (oh shoot!), and rep 3 had Zach coming over to me saying the weight was too heavy. I finished the rest of the workout at 45#. I need to start finding the time to test the weight before time has started because I continuously load up too heavy of weight and can't do it. After the workout I was frustrated because I really thought I should (What does "should" even mean in this case?) have been able to do the prescribed weight. I sent emails off to Karen (My oly lifting partner in crime) and Zach and then a very timely post was written on CrossFit Watertown's blog.

"Some days, we will be better. Some days, we will suck. That’s life. Just work hard and get the **** over it."

At work, I printed out this post and put it on my bulletin board. It's a great daily reminder to shake things off and go forward. Tuesday's workout is done- I tried, I failed, and I did the best that I could do at the time.

Then on to Thursday's workout:
"Elizabeth"
21-15-9
squat cleans (95#)
ring dips

There's nothing quite like the feeling of being one of Crystal's 6:45 girls. We're all close friends, the best supporters and we're there to hit that workout hard. Sure, it's a women's class and we giggle and gossip but once our bars are loaded up, the sweat starts dripping and that workout gets DONE. I've watched these girls struggle and succeed, crush and disappoint and in the end, always come out on top. Chris goes hard and heavy EVERY time, she's stronger than people think and I love it when she outlifts me on Totals. Annie is small in size but one hell of a CrossFitter, she's going to make it to the top. Myriam, I've been working out with since the beginning and is the fastest person I know. That's my CrossFit love of the day.

Back to the workout- oh, squat cleans, what am I to do with you? Similar to Tuesday, I loaded up the prescribed 95#, did 3 reps and failed (I need a new word for failure). But this time, I wasn't disappointed in myself. It was more of a curious, "Hm, what's going on here?" moment rather than an "Oh shit, I suck" kind of deal. I learned from Tuesday's wod to put things into perspective. I had great coaches all around, my favorite girls for support, I was trying my best and it was FUN.

I ended up doing all kinds of different weights for "Elizabeth", going from 95 to 85 to 75 to 85 to 65 to 85. Pretty much a mess but I was working on it, trying to find the blend of fast elbows, catching the bar, tight core, and squat depth. A goal is set for September 1 to do this workout as prescribed. Maybe I'll even video it for my viewing pleasure!