one on one: day fifteen

Today was my first one on one session since the competition and as promised, Joon took it up a notch. After working with me for several sessions we had the ability to see where I stand when faced with the clock of a competition. We discovered that I am fully capable of pushing myself, that I am strong, and what needs to be worked on. So before todays session went into full swing we redid my Strength/Weakness/Objective list.

My list with Coach Joon's add ons.

The truth is I really loved competing, even if I came in second to last. I know what I really suck at, what needs work, and what I am proficient at. I do have the bug to compete again, when? Well that all depends on someone else (Beth). So my focus is now to work as if everything I do will help me get stronger and better for a future competition. And so this is what we did today:

Warm-up: 800m Row

Extended Warm-up:

     3 x 5 Squat Therapy

     3 x 5/10/15 Russian KB Swing & Goblet Squat (25#)

Jerk Dip 10 x 3 (Heavy)

     Attempted 135#

     Did 95#

3 Rounds:

     100m Row Sprint (All Out)

     Rest 30 Seconds

     10 Front Squats (Unbroken) 55#

     Rest 1 Minute

3 Rounds:

     For 2 minutes do:

     10 DB Snatches (20#, 25#, 25#)

     Then for the remainder of the time do Explosive Step-ups

     Rest 3 Minutes

The jerk dip was hard. I really wanted to go heavy as Joon wanted me too but my wrists weren't having any of it. I have a lot of work to do with my upper body mobility. I focus so much on my hips and legs that I have neglected my shoulders and wrists. It was far too painful with the weight on my wrist. So I cut the weight back and tightened my wrist straps. Though uncomfortable, it became much more bearable. Jerk dips are a strange movement, but they certainly got easier. The row sprints and front squats weren't so bad. I went light with the front squat because the focus was going unbroken. I wanted to give my right knee a chance to really warm-up and my wrists were feeling tired. As for the explosive step-ups, the first round was ok but the next two rounds really sucked. Even with a 3 minute rest period in between each set my quads were hating life. I really tried my best to get "comfortable with uncomfortable."

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

*There is no update on the case of my friends murder so far. After learning of her death yesterday morning, I decided to stay at work to keep myself calm. After work I choose to continue with my normal routine and go workout. It was one of those WODs that you knew you'd be hating it the minute the clock says 3, 2, 1 Go! But I am glad I did it, the entire time I kept Nicole in my thoughts and kept telling her this WOD was for her. I pushed myself to keep moving and to embrace the suck, because she embraced the suck to achieve her body building goals. Once the WOD was over a release of emotions came over me and it felt good to shed some tears. I took all of the pain and sadness I was feeling and channeled it into my movements. A part of me feels that maybe she was there helping me through it. RIP Nicole Laube.

make time

I am dealing with the unfortunate loss of a friend today. Trying to process what I feel and how this could have happened. I do know the one thing that really sticks out to me is "time." Nicole and I went to massage school together, we weren't very close during that time and after we graduated she simply disappeared. But as luck would have it, Facebook brought us back together. I'm thankful that she, two other friends (Connie and Mondo), and I got together this past June and caught up. And I know in the time of loss and pain people will say beautiful words of the deceased because they feel that is the right thing to do. But when I tell you that Nicole is a beautiful person, I truly mean what I am saying. She grew up so much since we last spoke and made so many positive changes in her life. Married, kids, and found body building and loved it. We laughed over drinks remembering the various classmates we had, the ups and downs in the massage world, the new hobbies we all took up, and what our future was to be.

I am sad not only because I lost a friend, but because I wish we had made the plans to get together again quicker. I am sad because I took for granted that we had plenty of time to plan. I am sad because time was stolen from her, her family, her kids. If I were to ever stress anything to you, it will be this, don't wait to call up a friend or family member you haven't seen or heard from. Make the first move. Make plans. Make TIME. Because we truly do not know when our time is up and what a shame to waste what little time we have on unimportant things.

So go hug the ones you love. Smile. Laugh. Love.

RIP: Nicole Laube

summer smash crossfit competition reflection

If you've been keeping up with this blog than you already know that I competed this past Sunday, if not, well now you know. Being my first CrossFit competition you can imagine I went through an array of thoughts and emotions during the process. Naturally I was quite nervous leading up to the day, in fact it didn't really hit me until the day before. The morning of was hard to eat breakfast without feeling nauseous. What I was so nervous about I'm not entirely sure but knowing myself, I was probably more afraid of falling or doing something wrong in front of all the people that would be there watching and cheering us on. Because if you know me, you know that it is quite possible that I would accomplish something like that. And no, nothing of the sort happened. My nerves completely diminished the minute Megan, the gracious lady who put this competition together, went over the standards of the first WOD. Suddenly it was like I was back at CrossFit Stumptown and we were just going over the WOD that we would be embarking on. Oh, and allow me to add that the entire competition took place outside. They had the road closed off for the day and set everything up outside where there would be more room and the people walking by for the Hawthorne Street Fair could stop and watch. I didn't prepare for it being outdoors and working out under the hot sun all day, but it was a new challenge that I was forced to deal with. I competed in the Women's Scaled Division with only five other women. Here is my breakdown of thoughts on each WOD that day.

WOD #1:
     AMRAP in 15 minutes of:
     1 Power Clean 65#
     2 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run (which actually turned out to be 2 back and forth sprints)
     2 Power Clean 65#
     4 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run
     4 Power Clean 65#
     8 Over the Bar Burpee
     200m Run
     ETC ETC.
This WOD was awful. It was awful before I had even started, awful even days prior to the competition. I already knew that this WOD would be the one that I would do the worse in. First of all, running is just not something that comes to me naturally. Sure I can run, but I am not efficient at it. I don't stride well and I don't breathe correctly. This is something Joon and Tony have been working with me on. I'm still a work in progress. Anyhow, adding running AND burpees in the same WOD is like a death sentence for my lungs. I prepared in advanced and made sure to use my inhaler beforehand, and planned on just pacing myself during the run. What I didn't factor in was the HOT weather. The power cleans were of no issue, the weight is light for me and so breezing through those were a piece of cake. The burpees got hard fast with the sun beating down on my and trying to breathe over the hot black mats. In the very first sprint I took off way too fast and burned myself out almost immediately! Rookie mistake #1! Needless to say, I came in last in this event.

WOD #2 & #3:
     Establish 1RM of Overhead Squat in 8 minutes, then rest 2 minutes and in 20 minutes complete:
     500m Row
     10 HRPU (hand release push-ups)
     20 Step-ups on 20" box
     30 KB Swings 25#
     40 Sit-ups
     100 Double Unders OR 300 Singles
     40 Sit-ups
     30 KB Swings 25#
     20 Step-ups
     10 HRPU
Ok let me begin with the overhead squat, my weakest of bar movements. I only established a new 1RM on this four days prior to the competition, from 65# to 95#. My goal was to get 90# on competition day, and maybe shoot for 95#. But as I was warned by Joon, the adrenaline will push you to go all out. And so after nailing 70#, 85#, and 90# I decided to get a little crazy and go for 100#. I failed the first two tries and even called good after that. But when 90 seconds was announced as all that was left, I decided to give it one more go and NAILED it! In a matter of one week I PR'd the OHS by 35#. How does this still surprise me? I have no clue. I placed 4th in WOD #2. The 500m row was a part of the 20 minute time cap but was scored separately. I came in 2nd place with the row at 2:06. For the rest of WOD #3 I came in 5th place and I believe a part of me died out there on the asphalt that day. As much as I dreaded WOD #1, this one pretty much killed me. Rookie mistake #2 is not knowing how to do double unders yet, so I ended up wasting time doing 300 singles. You know what that means? I means I am learning how to do double unders ASAP. The rest of the WOD was hard mostly out of being tired. I'm not accustomed to pushing myself to continuously move without stopping for water or breathing breaks. I came close to not finishing it under the time cap, but I did. Thank goodness!

Final WOD:
     AMRAP in 3 minutes of:
     Shoulder to Overhead 65#
I chose to do push presses as I felt those were more efficient for me at such a light weight. Before beginning this WOD I felt that my shoulders felt pretty good, especially since everyone seemed to be complaining that their shoulders felt tired. But after about a minute of doing push presses I began feeling my shoulders burn like crazy. I pumped out as many push presses as quickly as I could go. I ended up getting 37 reps in 3 minutes. I placed 5th in this event.

Individually I did alright in most events, especially for it being my first time. I went into this competition wanting not to place last but after WOD #1 I came to terms that I would more than likely place last overall. And you know, I was surprisingly ok with this. I mean at least I signed up and knew I was giving my (almost) all. The end result was I placed 5th overall. This was a pleasant ending to my first competition. Now the bigger question is, what did I learn from this experience?

Well, I absolutely learned that I really need to learn to be a more efficient runner. So much so that I will begin taking Tony's running clinic Saturday mornings in September. I learned that I need to learn to do double unders. And the biggest lesson learned is to give myself enough credit. I am strong. I am capable.

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

stop lying to yourself

I need to spout something off that has been bugging me lately. There's been a lot of talk about how women (and anyone for that matter) should love themselves the way they are. I do agree with this statement wholly. I think we, women especially, judge ourselves far too much. This is especially true when it comes to body weight. I am most certainly guilty of it. But what really bothers me is how some women are using the "I love myself as I am" statement as an excuse to be fat. This drives me crazy and I just don't understand why. Listen, I'm all for loving yourself as you are. We're all not going to look the same. Not everyone is going to be skinny and even the opposite some can't gain the weight they need/want.

Take myself for an example, I am overweight and I know this. Instead of focusing on losing weight, I focus on my fitness and diet. I workout to get strong, build muscle, and to be able to function normally because that is my desire. I am working on eating healthier because that is needed for myself to perform well in the gym but also because I want to fuel my body appropriately. In taking these steps I will naturally lose fat weight without that being my main focus. But at this very moment I am taking steps to eating healthier but I don't eat completely healthy, and I am not blinded with the notion that I am fully healthy. Being overweight still puts me at risk for all sorts of things.

So while I love who I am and how I look at this very moment, I know that I need to continue to work on my health and fitness so that I can continue to love myself for a very long time. I don't want to be one of those older adults dealing with diabetes, or high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, etc etc. So if you are like me and are overweight and are working towards being healthier, good for you! I am proud of you. But if you're standing there saying you love who you are and are overweight stuffing a candy bar in your mouth with a soda in your hand, you aren't fooling anyone. Stop lying to yourself and start actually loving yourself by taking steps to being healthier.

This photo was taken from Pinterest.

one on one: day fourteen (bonus day)

This week of one on one training with Joon is slightly off. Instead of the normal Tuesday/Thursday sessions, we are doing Wednesday/Friday to accommodate my time off to allow my back to get better from my sacroiliac joint issue. But since work was a tad bit slow today, I got off early and had an impromptu session with Joon to help prepare me for my competition this coming Sunday. I'm so blessed to be surrounded by people who want to see me succeed. I don't think I would feel confident enough to even consider competing if I didn't have the support that I at home and CrossFit Stumptown. So this is what we did:

Warm-up: 3 min Row
5 Sets (2 min rest in between each set) of:
     2 Power Cleans (75#)
     4 Athletic Burpees
     10 Cal Airdyne

Sculpting:
     3 x 5-7 Dumbbell Presses
     3 x 5-7 Tricep Extension
     5 x 5 Five Sec Elevated Plank Hold, 1 Push-up

It was a short and sweet session but it sure has me feeling my arms more than I have in a long time. Feels good actually. I surprised myself with the Airdyne today and pushed myself harder towards the end, even when my quads were burning like crazy and I felt tired as hell. I worked really hard on focusing on breathing properly to limit my panic breathing. Give me something heavy to lift and I will probably do it, but ask me to breathe normally and I just can't quite get it done right. Baby steps.

This photo was taken from Pinterest.