Return to CF

With the recent hurricane that passed through our area the gym was closed for two days. So I decided to go to CF whenever they opened. There were six or seven of us in class. We started with warm up- 3 Rounds of 10 x Shoulder pass throughs, 10 x Push-ups, 10 x Squats. After that we moved on to the WOD "Fran." It's a 21-15-9 rep of Thrusters and Pull ups. I did 45# for my thrusters and scaled down the pull ups to ring rows. My time was 10:10. Core was 3 x20 supermans for me. It was really hard coming back into class after the 5k and the pain from the past few days. It feels good and bad to be back. I'm ready to do the 5k next year. Yes. The pain from race is fading and the fun memories still remain. I must be crazy. 

Dead.

Yesterday was the Zombie 5k- runforyourlives.com- just north of Baltimore. I started Cross Fit for this. Oh how unprepared I was. For the past few days I've been dreading this, wanting to back out and just forget about it. But after we showed up and got our tags and got ready, I was ready to go. I committed to this and I wasn't going to back out. The zombies were great. They mostly cheered me on, even as they were killing me. The obstacles were horrendous. The course was on a camping site that had hiking trails. There was a lot of up and down to start with. I felt like we had already gone a mile when it was probably just 1/4 of one. We had to crawl thru some black pipes and that was difficult as I couldn't stand up without getting my legs in front of me. Talk about awkward when trying to shift my body around! Shortly before the 1 mile mark there was a crawling section. I was nervous that I wouldn't fit under there and through these small triangles. About halfway thru I had had it and was ready to give up. Luckily there was a really nice guy urging me on and then he waited for me to catch up. My daughter was also at the end cheering for me. I was shocked I made it out. The guy stayed back for me on the next obstacle which was going under barbed wire. His friend was smaller than me but she kept getting caught up on it. That made me nervous as I didn't want to get cut up. The guy monitoring the obstacle helped me try it by lifting up the first barbwire. The way I was crawling he said I was fine and had plenty of room so away I went! The other side was hard and I needed a hand to climb out, but I made it! Down a muddy hill we slowly went to this natural spring (large pond/small lake) filled with now muddy water! They said it was fifty degrees because it's fed from an underground source. I had to wait for a group to pass and as I sat there, I worried about how I was going to get out the other side. All they had was a steep muddy bank and a rope. The water was so cold it took my breath and I could barely inhale. With shallow breaths I swam to the guide rope and then pulled and kicked my way across as fast as I could. At the other side I found my footing and pulled and then shifted my feet and pulled again, next thing I knew I was out and not so cold anymore! It was such an accomplishment to get out of that lake for me. We worked our way further through the course, muddy hills down and up and turning and rocks- not the most awesome thing to walk on. Then we came to the top of a very steep hill. about 2/3 of the way down it was so severe that I got down on my bottom and scooted the rest of the way. I really did not want to fall. And of course what goes up must come down and vice verse! So up we went. I literally bear crawled my way up it was so steep. Finally at the top it was another water station, marking the end of mile 2. The "top" of the hill was a myth, we went a short ways on flat ground and then had to make our way up more hills, luckily not as steep. I went around the mud pit because the footing looked treacherous. Next was a playground full of zombies and then two smokehouses filled with electrifying strings hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't make it thru the window so again, went around. We thought we were close to the end, but we weren't. Down, around, down, up, up, up! The last stretch of uphill was brutal. They had a lot of little hills and then some trees to go over, more mud! We got to the top and worked our way around to the giant slide. I was worried again about getting out of the pool of water so skipped that and headed for the electric fence. After watching for a few I went for it. Made it thru no problem. Full of mud, sore from head to toe, I made it. We crossed the finish line together, my daughter and I, after 3 grueling hours and 58 torturous minutes. It took forever, but I did it.

I'm sure there are some things I missed, but it's now Monday and I really want to finish this post. My calves are still surging with pain but the rest of the aches are fading. And yes, I may do this again next year! Try to cut my time in half maybe. We're in the path of Hurricane Sandy so the gym was closed today. I was going to go to CF, but I guess it's for the best that I'm still kind of in recovery mode. Things look like they'll be shut down tomorrow too.

Thurs CF

So with my arm feeling better and a full night's rest I made my way to class. There was myself and two other guys there so we busted through pretty quickly. Standard warm up and then two WODs. The first one was 4 x 8 Strict press. Going at our own pace for the reps. I did 45#. It was a struggle once I hit 6. We got our bar ready for the second WOD. I had two bars because I can lift more then I can hold over my head. It was 21-15-9 for time of: OHS (95#/65#), SDHP (95#/65#). I did 45# on my Over Head Squats and 65# (RX!!!) on my Sumo Deadlift High Pulls. My time was 7:45. For core I did 3 x 20 supermans. Here's my print from after we were done and starting to clean up. I thought it was funny that I was so beat up from this workout that I left a body sweat line on the concrete.

Wed WSD

It was just the kid and myself for WSD today. We did warm up- jogging, bear crawls, and shrimping/sit ups. Then we moved on to chokes on the ground. It was good. We got in a few different techniques and then had some time to practice them. My arm has been sore for almost a week now. I got some therapy on it and taped it and amazingly it's feeling better. The bruising is starting to fade. Here's an update to what they looked like at "peak bruise."

CF Monday

Another week is here and it was an mellow class today. A lot of hard work, but not brutal like it's been. We started off with warm up which was 3 Rounds of: 10 x Good mornings, 10 x Push-ups, 10 x Squats. Then onto the WOD. It was three rounds of 15 x GHD Bench press (45#/30#), 25 x Good mornings (45#/30#), 800m Run. I did regular bench presses with 35# and then used a 33# bar for GMs and rowed. Got done in 20:58. my right arm is still really sore. Not sure what I did to it but it's been hurting all weekend. It didn't interfere with my workout tho, so that was good. No WSD tonite as we are going out.

CFF

I'm feeling badly good. I know it sounds weird, but I'm feeling bad in a good way. Last night I fell asleep with my three ibuprofen and woke up feeling good. I headed to the gym in high spirits with regards to the day's WOD. Warm up was simple, 3 rounds of 10x jumping ring dips, 10x shoulder pass throughs, and 200m run (I rowed). Then we set up for the WOD. Today was a tabata with three exercises: squats, pull ups (ring rows for me), and box jumps (I used a 45# weight). Even though I was dripping with sweat and my body felt like it had 10x the normal amount of gravity pushing me down, I made it through to the end. The squats were good. I'm getting better at them. Ring rows were bad- the back of my right knee acted up during the third round and hindered me quite a bit. It relayed over to the box jumps too. I started off slow, but picked up towards the end. For the core I did 30 supermans. No resting this time, just pumped them out. I must say I really prefer this 12 min tabata to the 16 or 20 min ones we've done in the past. Total reps was our score and I got 171!

CF

Every move I make hurts somewhere on my body. Breathing hurts. Physically I am completely drained. Why I don't have any ibuprofen in my desk is beyond me. Warm up was the standard. There ended up being three of us in class so we moved along fairly quickly. Our skill today was Pistols. Not my favorite as it's a squat on one leg. Very hard and painful still. The WOD was 30 x Power snatch, 400m Run, 20 x Power snatch, 400m Run,10 x Power snatch,400m Run for time. I started with 45# then 55# and ended with 65# for the PS and instead of running I rowed. So much trauma on my arms! I was behind in the second round and then caught up in the third. The one lady had 4 PS left and I was able to pump out my ten in almost the same time she finished her four. It was brutal. Onto the rower for the last 400M and everything was burning, even my feet. I was about 25m til I finished and I saw the lady round the corner to come back so I pumped it out to finish just a few seconds after her. What a relief! My time was 24:45.

Wed WSD

Class started off as just me and coach. He had this look in his eye that made me fear class! I'm an advanced student so we're going to try some different things. Wait, what? No, not me. I'm not advanced! But I guess he sees progress so that's good. After jogging, shrimping, squatting, and bear crawling, another girl shows up (she's also been coming for a while). We finished warm up and moved into review of grab escapes. After moving quickly through those we did some randori rounds of doing random grabs on each other. It's hard to figure out what to do. So many choices. Moving on to the ground we did a couple escape rounds to get out and get away when we're mounted. And the finale was sparring. Oh painful sparring. As fun as it is, I get out of breath quickly and after a three minutes I pretty much gave in. We had been going good for the last 15 minutes of class and I was sweaty and gasping for air. Next time I need to go in for the tap faster and get her to submit. She's so fast tho. CF today and I'm dreading the pain. My arms are bruised and sore.

Fantastic night of WSD

WSD was awesome. We went over stuff that I hate.. like base and shoulder escapes, but it was myself and another woman who is a blast to have in class. After warm up we went over wrist escapes pretty quickly. Then we moved on to the chicken wing move and then doubled up for how to do the double chicken wing escape. It's one of my favorites. We went back and forth with the moves and then headed into a randori type game to test each other on the types of grabs. After that we played the "survivor" game and used the grabs to try to keep the other person while they used the escapes we practiced. We were both fairly successful except once when I got her with the double chicken wing grab and was able to pull her back pretty far. But she just learned the chicken wing move so I can't hold it against her! She is a fast one when she escapes. It's been a while since I had non back pain pain in class. Tonight it was my right side that just flared up towards the end. I had to break and get water. Another class where I was pouring with sweat! Tomorrow we have a show to see so will miss JJ again. But I'll be back for Wed WSD.

Monday CF

Today was an "easy" workout says Coach. Yeah no. It took everything I had just to drive to class. I really wasn't feeling it. Warm up was 3 rounds of 10 x Good mornings, 10 x Lightweight push jerk, 10 x Shoulder pass throughs (first two with a bar, third with pvc) and then we moved on to the WOD. For time we only had to do 30 Clean and Jerks. I loaded up my bar to 45# and we began. It was nice to have Coach work out with us (just myself and another lady in class today) and she finished super quick! I was next to finish at 5:55. Then a few seconds later the other lady got done. I know she had more weight on her bar than I did, but it was again nice not to be last. For core I did three reps of 25 "unbroken" sit ups. Meaning I didn't stop during my set. And I didn't! It was painful, but good. Tonite is WSD. Looks like I'm going in alone. Hopefully it won't be too brutal.

TGICFF

Yes, it's Cross Fit Friday! I'm feeling good and sore after today's workout. Warm up was 3 Rounds of: 200m Run (row), 10 x Squats, 10 x Lightweight push press. After working up a sweat I was asked to move the rower outside- thankfully it was a gorgeous day- for the wod. The WOD was 3 Rounds of: 8xThrusters (65# for me), 15 x T2B (on the floor for me), and 400m Run (row) then rest 2 Mins. I pushed through the last round so I could be done the same time as another lady. My times were 4:54, 5:28, and 4:54. I think I could have done better on the second round but I was beat. Another week over.

Thurs CF

We started with the normal warm up and then got ready for the WOD. We did five rounds, max rep each round, of bench presses and pull ups (ring rows for me).  Overall I did 43 bench presses at 85# and then 54 ring rows. My arms are still sore. Core was 50 supermans for time. I completed them in 1:07. Non stop supermanning. I rocked it. Just three of us doing the WOD today and that included Coach. I need to figure out what I'm doing tomorrow. As of right now I'm super tired!

Wed WSD

We had a good class today. Warm up was jogging and then bear crawls and shoulder escapes and shrimping and push ups. We went over arm grabs and some chokes. We learned a new grab escape and my name for it is the chicken wing.  Basically if your hand is grabbed above your head then you bend your elbow in a way where you chicken wing their arm and it makes them let go. Then we moved onto floor escapes. I sat this one out but ended up having to do it when we went into the games. The first one was the other person trying to escape me and she did. Then we changed partners and I held on to her as best I could but eventually she got away. I need to be able to get up faster. But when I was the survivor and escaping I was able to shift out from under her grip and get to a point where I could use her to stand up. She grabbed my arm and I got out then she went to choke me with both hands so I threw up the elbow and wrapped my arm around her and loaded her on my back. She tapped out pretty quickly then! Honestly I hadn't realized I had loaded her. Pretty neat stuff and quite the workout.

WSD

WSD was good. We did some warm ups and then moved on to getting up and down in base and then working on arm grabs again. Nothing major. Missed BJJ tonite due to a dr appt that ran late.

CF x2

So I took my Dr's advice and tried an extra day of CF. I went in Friday for a workout and got more of a beat down. Warm up was 3 rounds of: 10 x Jumping ring dips, 10 x Shoulder pass throughs, 200m Run (I rowed) and that did me in. I was exhausted. After a few minutes for everyone to get their dumbells ready we moved on to the WOD. It was 4 rounds for time of: 25 x Push-ups, 10 x DB Snatch R arm (45#/25#), 10 x DB Snatch L arm (45#/25#), 800m Run. I did knee push ups, a 20# weight, and then rowed. The first set felt good, the second set felt awful, the third set my arms were burning, and the final set I was closing my eyes pretending I was anywhere else just trying to finish this thing up! There were four of us doing this particular WOD and I was third to finish! Talk about a boost to my self-esteem. Even tho she was running and I was rowing, I was keeping up with the group. My time was 36:21. A really, really, really long WOD. But it was good to get it done. Core was holding a plank for as long as you could. It's hard for me to do in shoes so I didn't last long. Then we did it 3 more times. I got about 25 seconds for the first one and then it dwindled from there.

Today was another stressful WOD. Again with the burning arms. Warm up was three rounds of 10 x Ring rows, 10 x Push-ups, 10 x Squats. Then the WOD was for time: 1000m Row, then 6 Rounds of: 8 x Ring dips, 10 x Pull-ups, 12 x Pistols. The row took me 4:46 and I did a modified version of the dips where I jump up and just try my best, then ring rows instead of pull ups, and a modified pistol squat- I used the rings to help me balance and I couldn't squat very far at all. My total time including the rowing was 18:33. I moved on to core earlier than everyone else because I was worried about not being able to finish like last time we had this as a core. I did 50 before everyone started and then did 50 while everyone else was doing their 100. First half wasn't timed, but the second half was and I did them in 3:29. Amazing! I'm shocked that I was able to do it. Sure my arms were on fire and my stomach was actively fighting against my every move, but I did it! Tonite is WSD and hopefully I will be able to make it through the class.

Pushing Through the Pain

I wanted to give up about halfway thru the WOD today. It was morbid. Coach worked out with us today and there was just another girl, coach, and myself there. Had to push thru for some girl power. We started off with the regular warm up that I still get winded doing and then moved on to the WOD. Today it was five rounds of 10 front squats and 10 lateral burpees. For the front squats I loaded up two 10# for a total of 35#. I can't pull my arms into the proper position yet, so it's hard to carry a lot of weight. For the burpees now that I go all the way onto the ground and the push all the way back up it's so much harder than ever for me. I thought it was rough standing up in base four or five times in a row- bah that's nothing compared to 10 times in a row of getting down and slowly easing myself onto the floor and then pushing up to stand back up. I definitely wasn't doing lateral burpees. There was no jumping involved for me. Someday. For now scaling is just a way of life. I was the last one done and it took me a little more than twice as long as the other girls, coming in at 22 mins and 32 secs. For core (because 50 burpees isn't enough) I got to end it with 30 supermans. After getting my breath back I was able to kick those out without much of a problem. It was refreshing as lately after 10 or 15 I'm breathing like a freight train. I feel good. I'm glad I finished. My body is sore and tired.

WSD Wednesday!

Best Class Ever! No matter how much I bitched or whined during it, I feel so much better after making it thru. We started with warm up. Jogging, sit ups, push ups.. but then we did a bear crawl lap the longer length of the room. I made it there and back. I missed the lunges, but did the step squats lap and then the worst of all... it was a push up, bear crawl step, push up, bear crawl step, repeat till you complete a full lap (full lap is there and back)!!! It was the hardest thing I've completed. Today was the first time I've ever created a sweaty full body print on the mat. It was gross, but good. We drilled pulls, pushes, and wrist grab escapes. Then we moved into some new technique where if someone grabs your shirt you are about to flip their arm either to break it at the elbow or twist it behind their back. After going over that for a bit we went in to a controlled randori and practiced different grabs on each other. We were the only two in class and it was really nice having a "private" session.

BJJ eh...

So we did end up going to JJ last night. We started with the warm up routine, running, high knees, butt kicks, shuffle steps- then went right into drills. I stayed in the back because I can't really go fast like these guys can. So I do my penetration steps, forward rolls, elbow escapes, etc in this area in the corner. After about a half hour of drilling we go into maneuvers. Now I don't do JJ regularly and I'm really out of shape so that doesn't help. I try to do what I can and scale where possible. I kept practicing rolls because I couldn't do what they were doing. Coach tells me to scale it down. Well that is the problem. I don't know HOW to scale it. I will try and try and try, but if I can't figure out how, then we have a problem. Normally I can scale it within reason and it's common sense type stuff. Asking is always an option, but I hate taking the time from someone else, especially if they've never had to scale it for themselves. I'm not your average MMA person. Ah well. We'll see how next class goes. Not super sore today. Still bruised in my throat area from Monday. Followup with my Dr went well. EKG and bloodwork all look good. Advised I exercise more. WTF doc.. W T F.

WSD

Last night was WSD and it left me with pain and a bit of anger. There were only three of us in class and  once again the kid got picked on. Last week she said she wasn't going back to a Monday class. This week she went ahead and went back, figuring it can't be *that* bad. Well I know she doesn't do things correctly all the time. She knows she doesn't do things correctly all the time, but I guess it finally became too much because now it's a constant dig with her (from the coach). It's embarrassing and demoralizing. So after a warm up we went into a choke maneuver. So not good. She took her issues out on me and boy could I feel it. A little overcompensating so much so that I felt like my collarbone was going to crack. After I told her to go easier she did it again. Then the other hand was better but once she switched back she did it a third time. I wanted to drop her to the ground and choke her. I'm still in pain. Breathing was hurting for a bit afterwards. Now it's tender and feels bruised even tho it doesn't look it. I think icing it helped a bit. I'm not sure she'll be coming back to class with me. And if that's the case, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to go to this place. When you're overweight and you have trouble doing something, someone making  you do it doesn't work. It just doesn't. There are things you can and can't do no matter your age/weight/ability. Some things take time and practice. Some things will never happen. I go and I try every single time I'm there. Most days I'm not wanting to go. It was a disappointing evening on more than one level. BJJ is a maybe for this evening. if she really wants to go, we'll go. I just have a bad taste in my mouth thinking about it.

CF Monday

Just another Monday afternoon. Today was the first time in a long, long time if ever that I thought I was actually going to pass out during class. I was getting physically sick and had to stop numerous times during the work out in order to not vomit. We started with a Warm up- 3 Rounds of: 10 x Squats, 10 x Lightweight push press. 200m Run. I made it through two and then just couldn't complete the last jog/walk. My lower back struck again. Then onto the WOD. We did 4 Rounds for time of: 30 x Wall balls (20#/14#) and 400m Run. I started with an 8# ball and then moved to the 4# ball. Coach said it was too light (it was, but the 8# was killing me) so she got me a 6# from somewhere else. Instead of more jog-walking I opted to scale down to the rower. It was brutal. The wall balls are where you toss a weighted ball that is larger than a basketball up onto the wall about 12 ft above you. After the first 10 it was a steady decline. The position required to do this really got to me. I'd have to pause and drop my head down so I could get blood flowing again. My time was 25:13. Core was 30 supermans.. again. This time I appreciated the fact that I could stay on the ground ;)  As of this morning the kiddo was a go for WSD so hopefully I'll make it through that tonight.