Looking back

Knee Push Ups

Cross Fit Sit Ups

So this journey has been going on for a while but today I'm only stepping back Two months. I'm putting up two pictures where I am wearing the same outfit and in relatively the same position. Top photo is from the end of April, bottom photo is from yesterday. It's not drastic, but it's a start. Baby steps. Recap for this week:  I had a great weigh in on Monday and shockingly I was so excited I wanted to exercise. Crazy right? Grabbed my bike and rode around the neighborhood a few times. Tuesday I had personal training and we worked on shoulders and back. Muay Thai was later that night and we continued with the teeping kicks and added a rear leg kick to it. It was a little tricky to get the hang of the coordination. Today I had training and we worked the legs. He brought the leg press up to 320 lbs. A little strain, but I could handle it. He kept me going from one exercise to another for almost an hour. It was a good session. Jits was tonight and we practiced the americana (ouch on the elbows!) and later moved it into an arm bar. So here I am getting ready for some much needed sleep. It really does a body good. 

Back in the saddle

Saturday we celebrated my daughter's birthday by going to Rehoboth Beach. Do you remember the Gravitron from the 80's? Well they have one there at Funland. Of course we had to go on it several times. And the teacups, and the bumper cars, and the haunted house ride! I was pretty nervous about fitting in the bumper cars and the haunted ride. But I tried and it worked out. We had a blast and spent quite a bit of time playing games and riding the rides. I was able to get sideways on the Gravitron. This is a big deal. I haven't done this since I was a kid. It was awesome. And yes, I have a picture because the kid running the ride was nice enough to take one for me.  We walked the boardwalk and out to the ocean and I still managed to get back to the car and not be dying. It was a fantastic day. Monday was a day off of exercising. Tuesday I did a mini work out and Muay Thai. I did 150 squats with the weights and 100 sit ups. Then we worked on Teeping/kicking to the upper body area in Muay Thai. It was rough! Wednesday I did more training and then Jits. The Jits class was crazy moves that I really can't do yet. But I finagled it to kind of work. Thursday was an off day and then Friday I swam laps. I got in 11. It's been a while, but it felt good to get back in the water. Today we rode bikes around the neighborhood just a little bit. It's getting fairly hot so we didn't ride too long. My butt is managing the seat issues better. It's not as painful as it was last time I rode. It could be that my bottom has had a break or that it's getting stronger from all the squats.  Another good week down.

It's been a while, with good reason tho

I did it!

So last week was normal. Training on Monday and Wednesday, Muay Thai on Tuesday, and Jits on Wednesday. I skipped training on Friday because on Saturday I got up early and we headed out to DC to participate in the Run or Dye 5k. We waited for about an hour in the start queue. Finally it was our turn and we brought up the rear. It was pretty neat to get hit with the powder. And I lasted fairly well. I didn't really start feeling it til I had gone a mile. If we hadn't had to wait forever just to start, I think I would have done a lot better. But I pushed through. Took three water breaks and finished the 5k in just under an hour and a half. I was shocked. Very happy to have completed it. My entire body was incredibly sore. But at the finish flags my husband and daughter took jumping pictures and well I had to do it too! I didn't want to regret not doing it. Funny cause after we got done we saw a lot of other people doing it too.  That day I got 14,760 steps on my fitbit, total of 6.45 miles.

Easy my ass!

Got my first stripe!

Which brings me to the week of hell! My knees and ankles were all sorts of painful. My ankles were swollen for a few days and I just really felt like crap. Getting up after sitting down for more than an hour would make my right knee scream. I would have to limp around for a few minutes til I could manage to stand upright all the way. I skipped training on Monday and Wednesday. Skipped Muay Thai on Tuesday. Wednesday I told my coach that I wasn't up for class. She said it would be easy and I should still come just to see what's going on and I wouldn't have to do much. Reluctantly I went. Very happy I did, even tho class was *not* easy! I got my very first stripe!!!

Thursday I took a rest day as now my hips were aching. It's a weird feeling having your hips hurt. Today I went to my training, but he took it easy on me. We worked on my upper body/arms. It was dreadful. But I managed to get through it. I'm looking forward to getting back on track next week.

What's 10 inches and 7 pounds?

That's how much I've lost from May 7th when I started my personal training to today. I know I have been doing better and definitely got over a hump with my physical issues. Things are getting easier, I'm getting stronger, and my body is adjusting. Had my training session today and honestly it's been a rough week foodwise so getting measured was really helpful. It was a confirmation that yes, I am shrinking. It's going to be a slow process, but I'll get there eventually. I didn't get this way overnight. The workout today was really hard, but I'm not hurting. I'm a little sore, but nothing bothersome. I sweat a lot today, felt like I was crying because it was just rolling down my face. It's been an awesome day, even if the weigh in today is bad, I did really good. It'll just be a speed bump on the road to good health. *** Update! Weigh in was awesome, down another 2.6 lbs!

Friday's workout

So I had a good session on Friday. We worked my arms and shoulders. They turned to jello. Lifting light weights became a struggle! It's crazy. But Saturday I was fine. The back of my right thigh is just now recovering from the last leg workout. Afterwards I must have been out of my mind because I signed up for a year of sessions :) I think the lack of oxygen got to me! Another workout tomorrow and I should get my new measurements to see if I've lost anything anywhere. We shall see. Still feeling good.

Still going strong.

I didn't train on Friday. Saturday I did a really long bike ride. Almost 12 miles. It was brutal. My butt was sore for days, literally. Sunday we had a long BBQ for the holiday weekend and Monday I stayed home. It was quite relaxing. So needless to day Tuesday was a kick butt day! I got in my swimming in the afternoon and then did Muay Thai that night. Class was rough. We did our warm up then walking drills and then 15 minutes of non stop kicking! Phew. I thought a bug was crawling on my arm but it was a huge bead of sweat rolling down it. Gross. Seriously gross.

Today I did my personal training session. It was brutal. I can't remember everything but we started with weighted squats and did some step ups, moved to leg presses @ 270 lbs!!!, more squats, leg lifts, kicking the heavy bag.. it was brutal. We hit another machine or two. The last machine was the worst. It was for abs and of course by this time I have had about a liter of water- I did my first lift up and poof I peed my pants. It was horrible. I left quickly and cleaned up. Spending the rest of the day in my swim trunks. Thankfully they were in the car! What a day. Skipping jits tonite as I just can't make it home and to class in that short amt of time. Tomorrow is another day.

Another week down.

So it's amazing how the more I do stuff, the better my body starts responding. Now don't get me wrong, I definitely have my good and bad days, but overall I'm just sore where I feel like I got a good workout as opposed to barely able to move-dying on the inside. I'm very impressed with my progress. And while I may look the same to almost everyone, I feel different. And this is the first time I've felt different in a long, long time. I love my personal trainer. I absolutely love how he works with me and pushes me and is a dick, but not too much of a dick. He's got this way about him that is awesome. The progress in the last few weeks has been amazing. I'm swimming, biking, doing Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, and my personal training and while it's a lot, it's good. I'm keeping busy and active.

Let me recap my week. Friday I was sore from head to toe so I had my personal training at lunch and barely made it through that. Then when I got home, I decided it would be a great idea to mow the yard. Man that is hard work. Sunday I spent 7 hours trimming one of my trees in the front yard. It was grueling work. Amazingly I thought I would be hurting on Monday but I felt great. It was the first day I can remember feeling really good in a long time. I spent my lunch break swimming laps.  Tuesday we took the heavier branches to the dump. Amazingly it only took about 10 minutes to clear the bed of the truck. That night I went to Muay Thai. It was pretty rough as it was very hot and my body just didn't want to do anything. We focused on kicking. And my thighs felt it. Wednesday I had my personal training session and we did upper body. My arms felt weak from the get go. After work I went straight to Jits class. Warm up was pretty rough again tho the class itself was good. I'm getting better with working with people. It's hard especially because I know moves have to be altered to work with my big body.

Today is an off day for me. I was going to go swimming but then opted out. Spent some quality time with my friend during lunch for a change. Tomorrow is another personal training day. He said we'd be working on arms again. That is scary!

Bicycling, Personal Training, WMT, & WBJJ = P A I N !

So I'm going to be backwards because it's been so long since an update. Today we did a crazy bike ride to eat dinner at Potbelly. It was almost three miles each way and there were uphill sections that were killer. But it only took a half hour each way. That's not bad for old out of shape me! Yesterday I did legs with my personal trainer. Started out with three sets of leg presses at 180 lbs. Towards the end my trainer would push on it to add weight. Crazy. Then we moved onto weighted squats. With every squat I held 5 lb weights in each hand and had to raise them up and out. It's crazy. First set was 50. Took a break kicking the a heavy bag 50 times. Then I got to take another "break" doing step ups onto a twelve inch high platform. After my first set of 25 each leg I got to sit down only to start doing my first set of 100 leg lifts! It was like one torture replaced with another. And it never ended!!! Rinse, repeat. It was brutal and my thighs were burning. To make it even more awesome, the day before that I did upper body with my trainer. My shoulders, chest, biceps, all jello-y with soreness. Did I mention That I also did my Muay Thai class after the arm day and Jits after my leg day??? So can you see why taking a bike ride today was nutzos?!?!?!  So that's been my past couple of weeks.. swimming, training, bike riding, classes... My body is a mess. But it's a good mess. My new rx seems to be less of an issue. I'm down 11 lbs so far since I got back on track. I'm hoping I keep going in this direction. It's a good pain :) 

My Bike during a pit stop on the way home. Beautiful sunset even if I was huffing and puffing!

WBJJ & Biking + 100th Post!

Well BJJ wasn't a full class. The girls are presenting what we do at a seminar so we discussed that and what moves would be easy to demonstrate. So since class wasn't very strenuous, I got home and pulled out my bike. Rode around the neighborhood 8 times. My butt is super sore. No stopping this time. Used Map My Bike for the first time. Pretty nifty. Tomorrow I have my fitness evaluation at the gym. Should be interesting. I'm happy to get an idea of where I'm at.

In unrelated news, this is my 100th post! Yay! I'm shocked I've kept it up fairly well. I think I've just about hit my 1 yr mark too. 

Women's Muay Thai

I love this class and I hate this class! Warm up was brutal. I am able to jog a little longer than before. I think the swimming/cardio is helping. I was shocked when we had to do pushups because I rocked them. It's been a while since doing them, but I could definitely feel a difference. We practiced punching, walking, kicking, blocking, and checking. It got super hot in class. Twenty minutes in and I was dying. I did take a few extra water breaks, but I made it through class. Drenched, but happy.

Going that extra step...

Or in my case, lap. I hit the gym on my lunch break and started with my 10 lap goal. I felt pretty good so I decided to see if I could hit 15. I did it with no problem. I'm excited to get back in shape. I felt pretty good last October for the Zombie run.. and this year I am hoping to cut my time in half. We have a 5k in June and August, then the Zombie obstacle course in October. I have also joined my gym's "biggest loser" type contest. I have 8 weeks to get my butt kicked into gear and lose a lot of this weight. If I can persevere, I think I have a pretty good chance of making it in the top ten. Got my measurements taken today and Thursday I'll have my strength test done. Tonite, Muay Thai. It's shaping up to be a good week. I'm excited to do this challenge. I'm ready.

Swimming and Biking

So with having a minor bug I have stayed away from the mma classes. I don't want to get anyone else sick. I have been keeping up with swimming and started riding my bike now that the nicer weather is here. Today I did 10 laps in 16/17 mins and then added a lap doing a modified backstroke for a total of 550m swam. For biking we have been on and off- going about 2-3 miles each time, usually with a break in between the miles. I wanted to see how fast I was going because I would feel myself getting tired and winded. I averaged 8-9mph and my top speed was 15-17mph. My best run is when I rode a mile nonstop- see the pic ;)

Another swim day

Yesterday I spent my lunch swimming again. It was much better. I made sure to look at the time and finished my 10 laps in 17 minutes. Not bad for an out of shape person with no fins/goggles :) Skipped CF today as I'm still feeling under the weather. Hopefully I will be better in time for Monday's class.

Allergies suck.

Well it's another week and I did not go to CF yesterday. A lot of head congestion and we were out late Sunday so I was fairly tired. The combination was not awesome. So not feeling like I want to be in the classroom setting, I brought my suit to work and went swimming on my lunch break. It's been a while since I've done laps, but I was able to complete 10 laps (50m/lap) in probably 15-20 mins. So for me that's fantastic. I am hoping to fill up some other afternoons with lap swimming. The gym is doing a weight loss challenge and I'm seriously considering entering. We shall see :)

WMT, WBJJ, CF kind of week ;)

So Friday I could barely walk. Between CF and sleeping last week, I threw my back out. Saturday was morbid, Sunday was better. Lots of massage, ibuprofen, and luckily I have a stim machine at home. Monday I spent lunch at the Chiropractor and went back again on Wednesday. I'm thankfully back to normal. My elbow is also doing better. Still some pain, but not as much or as often.

Muay Thai was great on Tuesday night. I was still having pains, but we did some different moves so we had to really concentrate. Talk about sweating. We practiced walking left, right, front, and back while punching. That was interesting. Then we paired up and started punching at each other while the other person blocked. Talk about wearing me out. I had to take a break a few times to get my back straightened but I made it through the first half of class fairly well, it was the second half that had me huffing and puffing and stretching out. Very happy about my progress so far.

Jits was really fun. We did some side escapes where you get the person who is on top of you in your guard. I understand how to do the move, but my body doesn't agree with my mind. So it's a work in progress. We also practiced getting the other person on  your back for a flip, just without the flipping over part. That's easy for me as the girls are all light. So it's like I'm picking up a rag doll. We had a good fun class. Only four of us, so made it a little more easy going.

Today was Cross Fit. I busted my ass out there. Warm up sucked. I see a lot of the CFer's with things that say your work out is my warm up... I'm still struggling because the warm up feels like a full work out for me! Today was three rounds of: 10 push ups, 10 jumping ring dips, 10 dislocates, 20 leg swings, 10 jumping squats and 40 second calf stretches. Then after all that we spend about 5 mins doing more stretches to prepare our bodies for the wod. So this brings us to our first wod- 5x5 bench press. I started at 55, then jumped up to 75, 85, 95 got me struggling so went up 5 and maxed out at 100. Amazing how much you can sweat doing bench presses. I just realized too that I wrote my amounts wrong- but they are very close- It's really hard to think during/after a work out. Thursday must be a lucky day because we got to do a second wod! Yay! Three 800m runs with a three minute rest in between.  I rowed and got 4:24, 4:16, and ended with a push for 4:10. Core was 50 slow abmat situps. Wow has it been a while since I've done that many sit ups. I need to get back into practice. So after all that, I'm feeling pretty good.

WBJJ, WMT, WBJJ and CROSSFIT!!!!

So I've been doing well with the BJJ and MT classes. Today was my first day back at CF... again. It was brutal and I was scaling it back quite a bit. Amazing how your body forgets. The warm up was a work out and the moving on to the WOD- I was sweating thru my shirt and had to push through to finish. It was rough.  Warm up was three rounds of 200m row, 10 ring rows, 10 jumping ring dips, and 20 good mornings with a bar instead of pvc. After recovering from that we moved onto the WOD. I had to scale it quite a bit. The original WOD was four rounds of 10 deadlifts, 40 double unders, and 4 rope climbs. I did the deadlifts at a low weight of 45# as I'm still nursing my elbow, substituted squats for jumping rope, and did ring rows instead of rope climbs. Finished my rounds in 15:56. A very good afternoon.

As a minor update I'm still going with my night classes. WBJJ is always fun, but it's hard to work with people when you're large. Things just don't work how they should be. WMT is also going really well. We have started kicking and trying to find our balance. Still making it about 30 mins before my back starts up with pain.

Women's Muay Thai

So my MMA place just started an all women's muay thai class. Today was the first class and we had 13 ladies- one even pregnant! It was a really fun class. Warm up was rough, I'm not going to lie. Coach is hard core on the basics. We jogged, knee slaps, ankle slaps, push ups, and the horrific boat pose- Then we moved on to technique. We practiced our stance and did some moving around, then added a check- which is where you kind of kick. So one, two, check. We did some shadow dancing where we moved with a teammate. Then practiced kicking each other. I have trouble swiveling, but we were able to work around it. I gotta say about 35 minutes in the pain went from eh to numbing. My lower left back was numb to the touch and tight. Sucked. I kept stretching out but man it sucks sometimes. Looking forward to next week's class. I'm hoping the pain lessens as we go on.

Better late than never!

So I haven't updated in a while- Since my last post I have been to one CF class, a few WBJJ classes, and my aqua classes. My arm has been sore for what feels like forever and I've been battling just about to be a cramp feelings in my calves. Not what I call fun. So I scaled back on CF mostly. The class I did do was a 12 minute AMRAP of wall balls. I did 135 @ 8#. Not bad if I do say so myself. Water aerobics are going well. I am anxious to get back to boxing. It's one of my fun classes. Had my physical today and with the ongoing arm pain I asked her about it- Apparently it's tennis elbow. So I have some exercises to do for that. Hopefully I can be back to normal before too long. I've realized that I have about two months till my next 5k. I'm nervous about it and am determined to start my C25K program asap!  That's it for now. My updates will be better as I get back into my routine again.

Aqua Tuesday

Best class of the week. I made it through the whole class with very little issue, no breathing trouble, mild arm pain. I had the good teacher which made my night. I'll have to stick to Tues/Sat for water aerobics. CF was a skip again today. I'm just not feeling it. Yesterday was a snow storm so I shoveled my 2 car driveway (why did we widen it???), my friend's 2 car driveway, and then back home to shovel mine again cause it was snowing pretty hard. A lot of work, but felt good. I'm unsure about tomorrow's CF.

Aqua Monday

So no cross fit and no Muay Thai on Monday. Instead I hit up Aqua class. First time with this teacher and immediately was rubbed the wrong way. She assumed I was incapable and tried to get me to downgrade to the smaller foam barbells. I'm like no, I'm not new, just new to you. After that I just got more irritated by her "Mickey Mouse just gave a blowjob to a helium tank" voice. It was grating. I was tempted to leave mid class. But I stuck it out. This teacher kept us moving and utilized the entire pool. Some awkward moves, but most of it was ok. Not quite the workout I get with the other teacher tho. I give her class a D- gotta be desperate to go to it.

Aqua Saturday

I got up early and hit class Saturday morning. Arms still sore from boxing/CF, legs still sore from falling :) but I went and put in my best effort. I was able to keep up with class with not many issues. I find myself going longer and longer before I get winded, so that's a plus. Getting out was still a bit of a challenge for me. I'm hoping it gets easier over time. Going to the chiropractor today so not hitting CF. Today was 150 wall balls so I'm not sure I would have really been up for it anyways- that's a lot of squatting and throwing with my sore arms and noisy knees. Looks like we may hit up Muay Thai tonight tho.

TGICFF

Yes, another week down. What a rough week too! Glad I went today, even tho my body was saying noooooooo! Not sure if I mentioned it, but I fell yesterday just before leaving to go to boxing class. It was really not fun. I landed on my left side, luckily nothing seemed broken/bleeding/etc. Sore and painful as it was, the fact that I didn't bash my head into something was awesome. I give credit to my coaches for teaching me how to fall properly and drilling it in because my head didn't touch the ground at all. Onto today. Soreness, bruises and minor swelling aside, I gimped my way into class and really pulled it out. Warm up was three rounds of 10x pass throughs, 10x good mornings, and 10x jumping ring dips. We moved onto the mechanics involved in the WOD. Today was crazy. 75 OHS (95/65) and 75 ring dips. I went lighter than rx at 45# so I didn't hurt anything further. Right arm is getting better and the left arm I fell on- go figure! As for ring dips, I still can't lift my body weight so I scale it down to a box where I dip down and have my legs available for support. I finished first today. There were only three of us doing this WOD today so it was a small class. Pushing for more reps between dropping the bar on the OHS was key for me- the guys would drop it after 5-10, less as they got higher in their numbers. I hit 25 and dropped it, 50 dropped it, 60 dropped it, and then pushed thru the last 15. I also can't squat as low as they can so I can only imagine how hard it is to push back up that extra few inches. I got through my box dips the same way- 10, 10, 10, 10, 10... It was brutal. I slipped down a few times onto the floor. My arms had had enough. I finished at 12:19. Amazeballs. Moving on to core I did 3 x 10 supermans with a 12.5# weight. Not awesome, a little awkward really. Every day something different, everyday a little better.

No sleep, no problem!

I got less than 4 hours of sleep last night that was broken due to a quick run up to NYC- Resulting in about 13 hours in the car total and leg pains from sitting for that long. We split it up and took breaks, but it was still stressful. So I was unsure about going to CF today but I still dressed just in case I was feeling up to it. I decided the heck with it and headed to class. Warm up was a 200 m run and then three rounds of 10 mountain climbers, 10 ring rows, and then pass throughs. It was a workout in itself! After warm up we moved onto the main WOD. It was 10 rounds of 10x pull ups and 10x burpees. I substituted ring rows for pull ups and with my leg pain I tried to do the make shift burpees getting all the way down to the ground, however it wasn't working for me so I did the squatting type burpees that I did in the beginning. It still was hard for me. after the second round I was wheezy and sweaty. Slowing my pace I was able to make it to the sixth round before my back pain really came in. Pushing through I finished with a time of 15:13. I would have been super excited to have finished that, but we still had to do core. Today it was 100 sit ups! It took me a good 10 minutes, but I got them done.

It's Thursday so we also ended up going to Boxing class. Warm up was awesome because instead of running we did drills. They still get me going, but it's more of a soreness pain than getting winded, which I hate. Friends of mine came and we partnered up and practiced punches and blocks. Class flew by- It was almost over before I was really looking at the clock to find out how much longer it would be cause my back hurts :)  Now I definitely deserve to go to bed! Three ibuprofen and hopefully I can get out of bed easily in the morning.

CF Tuesday

Yesterday we had some plumbing issues to take care of so I missed CF. I figured I'd be good and go today to make up for it. We had a good sized class today, about 8 or 9 of us. Warm up was rowing for calories, box jumps, and ring dips- 15-12-9. Today I was feeling blah so I did steps on to three 45# weights. After this I was pretty winded. We then went on to work the mechanics of the power clean. Got my bar loaded up and kept it light as my right arm is still giving me issues. Total weight was 35# for the pcs. I'm fairly slow getting up and down so I didn't do 7 push ups every minute. Instead of 15 rounds, I only made it thru 7 1/2, starting and ending with pcs. It wasn't morbid, but I was definitely sweating. I had the "other" coach today and again wasn't too fond. She yelled a little, but it wasn't motivational and she didn't seem to use names, I don't know it could be me, but I have that love/hate thing with being yelled at during CF. I hate it, but I know Coach is looking out for me to push myself harder and I do try harder and feel better about it in the end. Note to self: if I miss Monday, skip Tues 1 pm class :)  "other" coach was chatty after the WOD and so I just did 50 sit ups for my core. Pics are of the boards for the workout and then my board for keeping track. A number for my PCs and then a check mark for completing my push ups. Funny that I got 56 for each one.

Aquatics for the win

That's right. This morning I went to aqua class and I rocked it. Fifteen minutes in I was getting winded but I was able to hold strong. We did some races across the pool. I won every time and the teacher pointed out how fast I was going and then came over to me and whispered that this was a very competitive group- I'm not sure if she wanted me to slow down or was letting me know I was extra awesome. I choose tho believe the latter! And you know how they say stuff comes in threes- well let's recap... farting in WBJJ while doing sit ups, almost pooping my pants in CF, and now this morning on the way out of the pool my knee locked up as I was trying to step out and I twisted and fell back into the pool. I'm sure it looked all sorts of awesome. Not. Hopefully that's the end of my humiliating streak.

TGICFF

Yes, that's right, Thank Goodness It's Cross Fit Friday!!! The end of another week. Today was bliss compared to yesterday's hell. Warm up was 3 rounds of 10x squats, 10x ring rows, 10x pass thrus, and 20x leg lifts/swings (I did 10 each way for each leg each time). After we got all stretched we moved onto the main WOD. For time: 10 x Muscle-ups, 4 x Box jumps, 8 x Muscle-ups, 8 x Box jumps, 6 x Muscle-ups, 12 x Box jumps, 4 x Muscle-ups, 16 x Box jumps, 2 x Muscle-ups, 20 x Box jumps. I did the easier ring rows (2x for every 1 muscle-up) instead of muscle-ups and then used a 45# plate for my box jumps. I could feel it and was sweating halfway through. I finished with a time of 11:06. The box jumps continue to be a problem for me. Fear rushes through me every time I take a jump. Another week down. This was probably my best week ever for working out- barring yesterday's mishap (or almost disaster!). Core today was 30 supermans.

Boxing Night

So my kid has been wanting to give boxing a shot as it's a new class that started in January. We made our first class tonite. I was out of breath towards the beginning of warm up. Cardio, cardio, cardio! After some running and loosening up we started with basic footwork and jabs. The first run across and my right calf was tight and on fire. I took it a bit slower, but pushed through. Once we paired up and did jabs with our partner, it made things a bit easier. We did a lot of practice and finished with some weird type of jumping jack where you don't actually jump. It was a really good class and I'm looking forward to next week, hopefully our plans for Wednesday won't mess up Thursday too much. The Coach for boxing is really awesome. He was supportive and got my humor so that was a huge plus. I think I can do boxing even without the kid once I get my cardio going. Time for some ibuprofin and sleep. The jury is out on whether or not I'll be making it to CF tomorrow.

WBJJ & CF

So Wednesday was Ladies BJJ. We had a good class- smaller than normal with only four of us this time. We did warm up and then moved on to some more self defense type moves where we got to use props :) Out came the rubber knives. We learned techniques from the ground that would work if someone was trying to stab you or slice you. The moves would also work if the person didn't have a knife, but was still putting you in a vulnerable position. But enough about yesterday's class- I'm going to move on to today's CF because WBJJ was great per usual, unlike today's CF. Let's just get this out of the way- I almost pooped my pants. Yup. That's right. The WOD wasn't easy by any means, but it also was in no way the hardest. I did have a full breakfast today instead of splitting it up- wondering if that threw me off or if I may have a touch of food poisoning still left over from Tuesday. Either way it wasn't fun. Warm up was basically going through the techniques of the WOD, which today was a 3 min AMRAP, rest 2 min, 5 min AMRAP, rest 3 min, 7 min AMRAP of 5 deadlifts, 5 hang power cleans, and 5 kettlebell swings. I used a 35# KB and loaded a bar to 55# as I can't do as much weight for the HPCs as I can for the DLs. It was a struggle. Made it through the first round, rested, got about a minute into the second round and had to rush off. Apparently I missed most of that set as I came out as the Coach was coming to make sure I was ok. Red faced and all I got back in time to do the last set in full. First section I made it 2 times through, second was 1 time, third was 4 times. Glad to bounce back. My right arm is still sore. Core was 50 abmat sit ups. Not horrible, but not fun either. Catching my breath seemed extra rough today. Glad CF is done for today.

Aqua Aerobics = Water Death

It's been almost a year since I did water aerobics. I thought why not- I need to get cardio going. So I got there early and hit up the hot tub. So nice. I forgot how lovely the hot tub feels on my aching body. Time for class so I had to tear myself out of the warm water and plunge into the freezing lap pool. Ten minutes into class I was huffing and puffing. It was so much harder than I remember. This pool is deeper than the one I used to go to so there was a bit of a learning curve. After fifty minutes of flailing around, class was finally over. Back to the hot tub! The teacher is pretty cool. I appreciated her words of encouragement and compliments on my performance :) It's like riding a bike. Looking forward to her class on Saturday.

CF Monday

So as much as I wanted to nap today, I instead drug my butt to CF. I can't remember seeing so many people there! I guess being a holiday they all decided to get their workout in early. For warm up we rowed 500 m, 20 leg swings on each leg, and 20 pass throughs. Moving on to the WOD, it was a 21-15-9 starting with snatch squats and then c2b pullups- I did mild ring rows. RX was 65#, but that's my max for Snatch Squats so I kept it a bit lower at 35#. My back pain wasn't helping either, so I didn't want to overdo it. I was the first one done today with a time of 13:18. Ring rows don't take nearly as long as c2b pull ups. Those look brutal. Don't get me wrong tho. I was definitely aching and out of breath. Core for me was 3 x 20 sit ups.

Late CF

Busy on my lunch break today so I snuck CF in after work. I am glad I went. It wasn't too rough overall, but I definitely felt it. Warm up was like the early days- 200 m run, 10 slam balls, 20 mountain climbers. It was supposed to be three times but I take forever and only made it through two. Jogged the first part of the run then finished it walking, used an 8lb ball for the slams, and after attempting the mountain climbers I ended up using a box to support myself a bit so I could get my legs stretched out properly. The second round I rowed instead of walking. We had Muscle Ups as a skill set so I worked on just supporting my weight on the pull up bars. I feel like I'm getting stronger and better, so that's awesome. The WOD was a double alternating tabata of box jumps and kettlebell swings. I used the 45# plate for the bjs and the rx 35# kb for the swings. Total for me on this WOD was 70. After about three minutes it was a struggle. I finished CF off with core work of 50 supermans. Still not a fan of those- they could rename them boob squishers, ouch!

Coach Encounters of the Third Kind

So I missed Monday CF and decided to go Tuesday to make up for it. It didn't sound like a horrible class. Basic warm up and then the WOD was four rounds of 1 min double unders, 1 min row, 1 min anchored sit ups and 1 min 10 m shuttle runs, then rest for 1 min. My regular coach was not there, instead it was a coach I have never worked with. She must have missed the hellos because she went over the work out and then basically as she was setting the rower for calories she told me that she wasn't sure how she could scale the work out for me, maybe do three rounds instead of four. I told her I did "Angie" and I got this. The more I thought about it, the more I felt offended. I didn't ask her to help me scale it- she just assumed. She didn't ask my history, or if I was new, or if I had questions or needed help with any particular thing. She just assumed I would be unable to do it. I know how to scale most things for myself- I did single unders and regular ab mat sit ups. I finished it, quite winded, but so was everyone else. The score was a total of everything, counting each calorie burned for the rowing. I got 151. That's really not bad! Sure I had the lowest total, but that's no big deal because I finished it. I did my jumping and my situps and my rowing- hell with the short 10m, I jogged and power walked it. There was no core so that was nice. Biceps were sore today.

Today was WBJJ. My favorite class, I'm not going to lie. I miss self defense, but I really like this class. We seem to have the same group of ladies each time so that makes it nice as well because I can get more comfortable with them in order to eventually do maneuvers with them. We arrived late do to the kid's after school activities, but got in for a little warm up of some hip escapes. Then moved into a defensive move with a handshake. It's a nifty move where you dig your knuckle into the top of the person's hand that your shaking. Hurts like a bitch if you do it right. Then to work onto that we had a move where you bend their hand and grab their elbow, effectively breaking the wrist. A nifty move to keep in your bag of tricks. After that we practiced half mount escapes and it was nice to be able to do the move.  I can feel soreness in my shoulder and my arms still, but it's not horrible, so I know I'm improving. :)

Mental Breakdowns...

Yesterday was a rough CF class. We did a light warm up and then the WOD was a 12 min AMRAP of 5 x Back squats (135#) and 5 x DB Strict press (25#). I started off strong because after all- 25 pounds.. that's not that bad even in each hand. The back squats were manageable as well. About five minutes in the fatigue set in and by 10 minutes I could barely feel my arms. The weights turned into the heaviest things I've ever lifted. I just barely pushed out 10 rounds. It was good to finish it. I was beat. My core was 50 sit ups. I managed those without too much issue.

Today was a whole nother story. Mentally I was trying to prepare myself. It looked like a rough WOD today and I was already sore. On the website it was 6 rounds of 10x burpees and 10x muscle ups. When I got there it looked way better- there were two WODs- the first one was reverse rows 5 sets of 3. I did those at 83#. Then the main WOD was still strenuous- 21-15-9 ring dips and box jump burpees. Scaling the ring dips to using the box and sitting on it, then sliding off and using my hands to go down and up. Then moving onto the burpee box jumps I used a 45# plate again and did knee push ups. It literally hit me within the first 5 bbjs- my mind and body said no. This is the first time that I have ever seriously considered just quitting. I took a minute and had to recompose, stop myself from giving in and giving up, and just keep going at my own pace. I did cheat today. I kept losing track of my count. I'm certain I didn't do 21 bbjs. It was probably closer to 19. Not a great day. I don't like not doing what I'm supposed to- and on any normal day I would have over compensated for losing count. But not today. Today I focused on getting up and down and pushing the thoughts of pain and drowning and self loathing and tears away. I finished somewhere around 19 minutes. I can't remember the exact time, but I know it was shortly after another girl who finished just under 18 minutes. After my own personal hell WOD core was 30 supermans.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with a trainer. Hopefully I can pick his brain and get some good information for myself. Swimming will start up soon. I'll be ordering a new suit this weekend.

Women's BJJ

It's very nice getting back into the routine. We were able to go to our Wed ladies class. We did some light warm up and then moved on to quite a bit of technique. Started with a new version of the arm grab and then moved onto mount escapes. Finally we ended with the Americana- when you're mounted you'd take your left hand to their left hand trapping it to the ground, elbow tight to their head and then take your right hand and go under their elbow area gripping onto your wrist and then pulling upwards in a stroke motion- This should make the other person tap out in pain if you're doing it right. We had to keep checking the placement of the hand, bringing it lower so the hand was even with the shoulder and then the pain would pop right in. No MT tonight. We're easing back into our schedule. Now I know why my arm hurts :) couldn't figure out what I did to it before I typed it out!

Monday CF

Between a dr appt and needing to get my car taken care of I missed Thurs & Fri last week. This week should be back to more normalcy for me. Starting with the dreaded Monday class- Today's WOD was a 20 min AMRAP of 5 Power Snatches, 8 Box Jumps, and 10 T2Bs. I used 65# for my PSs, a 45# plate for my jumps, and did my T2Bs on the floor. I rushed the last set of T2Bs and was able to complete 5 rounds. It was pretty rough. I'm definitely feeling the lack of my normal routine. Last Monday's class was also death warmed over and served sweaty tho, so it was nice to kind of recover from that. We had a simple warm up of stretches and technique for the PSs. No core today so that was nice. Finished with a little more stretching and that was it.  A nice tiring quick class to start the week. I signed up at a different gym so hopefully I'm going to start getting swimming back into my rotations. I miss the water.

Damn you, Jumprope.. Damn you to hell!!!

So I don't normally do CF on Tuesdays, but I'll be missing Thurs and today was my only day I could fit it in. So after work I strolled down to class and it was packed. About 15 people were there. Now I'm really second guessing myself. My whole body is sore and even my butt cheeks hurt! Apparently this is normal after doing the WOD we did yesterday. So of course it'd be a great idea to go do more exercise today :)  I'm a genius. Warm up was a work out again. We jumped rope and did some stretching with the pvc pipe that included squats (no more squats!!!). Then we got ready and started the WOD. Today was a 15 min AMRAP of 8 box jumps, 10 kb swings, and 20 double unders. I used a 45# weight for by "box," a 20# dumbell for my kb, and did singles so I had to do 60. Jumps, check, kb swings, check, jumping rope-still the bane of my existence. I did get up to five jumps in a row, but for the most part it was just one and even that sometimes got stuck under my feet. Took me forever to do the jump rope part so I only got 2 complete rounds done, finished the bjs and kbs, and got up to 18 more singles before the timer went off. I was trying to get to 20 but my jump rope got whipped away from me when another girl got a little too close while she was jumping near me. Glad it was only my rope! For the first time we all did stretching together after the workout. It was a nice change. Then for core I did 3 x 15 supermans. They hurt, but I pushed through. Man am I sore. Currently my left calf is really acting up like it wants to cramp. Hoping I can sleep through the night. Worth going, yes, definitely.

3 Part update

I started updating last week, but one thing led to another and now here I am, just getting back into the swing of things. Last Wednesday I flew home from vacation, got off the plane, went home, showered, and headed right back out to class. We did the Women's Jiujitsu and it was a lot of fun. Sure I hate shrimping and hip escapes still.. I probably will until I can actually do them properly. It's so annoying to have your pants get pulled down with every move. It was a really good class and I'm glad I was able to go.

Friday I did my normal Cross Fit. The WOD was a 20 min AMRAP of 10 x SDHP (95#/65#), 15 x Push-ups, 25 x Double unders. I did 55# and single unders so I had to triple and do 75 each round. It was horrible! I got through the sdhp and the push ups, but damn if the jump rope was my nemesis!!! I kept tripping up and could barely do three in a row. It was so hard that I only ended up completing two full rounds, 10 sdhp and 5 knee push ups before the timer went off. Clearly not my best day, but again it was my first CF since vacation.

Today I killed CF. When I looked at what the workout was I literally sick to my stomach and didn't want to go. But I went anyways and I'm really glad I did. I finished in 28:49 along with two other people. For a change I wasn't the last one done.. well I was, but I wasn't alone this time! The WOD today was called "Angie" and boy is she a pain in the *everywhere*! It's 100 x Pull-ups (I did ring rows), 100 x Push-ups (knee for me), 100 x Sit-ups, and 100 x Squats. You can't move on to the next exercise til you finish the first. Talk about painful. But I did it. Sure I peed my pants a little (a lot, hooray for pads! boo for sit ups) and I wasn't sure I could move afterwards, but I managed. Drove back to work with the top down in 38 degree weather :) I was so hot from class. Today was a good day.

CF Friday

I didn't think I'd make it today, but I'm glad I went. Warm up was going thru the steps of how to do the front squat. Then we got down to the WOD. It was 5 rounds of 6 muscle ups (I did ring rows) and 10 front squats (I used 65#). I am still getting the knee pain with the RRs. The first set I felt, the second set I hand to limp, then sets 3-5 I adjusted my legs so that my right leg was way out in front and most of the pressure was on the left. This was better, but even now as I sit here typing I can still feel the pain. I got done in 7 mins 45 secs. First one done and I was worried- how come no one else was done, did I count wrong? Duh, muscle ups are *hard* and ring rows are definitely nothing close to the degree of difficulty. Sure, they're hard for me and I can barely do 10 in a row- I think my max in a row was 13, but google muscle ups if you don't know what they are and you can see for yourself. After the work out I stretched and did 50 abmat sit ups. Got through 20 and the rest were slow coming- around 35 my abs were really burning.

CF Thursday

I got to CF a few mins late today. Between having to potty and then construction holding up traffic- I was half thinking of just skipping it. But I kept driving and eventually got to class. Started warm up late so only had time for just shy of two rounds so I did a total of 4 mins jumping rope, 20 squats, 20 push ups, and 10 sit ups. We went into the first WOD which was a 4-4-4-4 bench press. I guess we started a little low at 35 lbs. We jumped up to 55 then to 85. I did my last set at 115 and was able to do 2 out of the 4 reps on my own. Very happy as that's a fair amount of weight for me. Then we moved on to the main WOD. It was an alternating Tabata- push press (45#) and jumping rope. It's only 8 mins long, but again, it's the longest 8 minutes ever. I only got in a total of 72 reps. I definitely started off strong, but wore down quickly. Another workout done. Slowly getting back on track- only to go on vacation next week again! This time I'll only miss Wed-Tues.

Women's only BJJ

Last night was my first Women's only Brazilian Jiujitsu class. I've taken regular classes on and off, but this was by far the funnest and non-stressful class. It's nerve-wrecking to walk into a class with a bunch of guys- fit guys for the most part. And here I am overweight, out of breath, and clueless on most of the moves. I really have to talk myself into going. And that's actually true for most of these classes. The feeling of intimidation mixed with nerves becomes a struggle. But the ladies last night were very friendly and of course it was nice to have familiar faces there. Even tho it's embarrassing to be the first one dying from the warm up :)  We did some running and shrimping and push ups (about killed me) and sit ups (still not recovered from the 50 we did in CF Monday and that did do me in!) for warm up. Then we moved into learning a side mount type position. Start off with person A on the ground and person B gets on top perpendicular and uses their hands to control the arm and hip area. Then you shift your knees so that you can slide the knee closest to A's hip up on top of their hip area (make sure to get a good base with other leg) and switch your arms to grasp the collar and their knee closest to your knee on their hip. This should keep them from going anywhere. Then a choke was added to this move. It was the over/under hand grab on the collar. After we practiced this we did a "fun" run. Tried to do 16 lengths of the room (long side) in a minute. I think I got to 8. After 4 I was struggling, but figured it was only a minute and tried to push. Left me out of breath and with side pains. Def need to get up on my cardio. Well get back up on everything. I saw the improvement. I could feel it. And it's like it slipped away. But I'm getting it back. I'm still in better condition than I was this time last year. I've got two 5Ks to prepare for- and this year's Zombie 5K is said to be harder than last years!!! So I've got a time frame and my current goal is to cut my time in half from last year's run to this years. Should be good!

How bad???

I knew going into today that it was going to be rough. I was prepared to feel more worn out before normal. But how Coach made an 8 min WOD feel like 45 mins is beyond my comprehension. Even before it started I was in pain. She started a new warm up that kind of teaches you the movement of the main WOD task. Even with that my back was burning, as if flaming hot knives were jabbed into my lower back repeatedly as my knees popped like popcorn. But I got thru the first WOD Squat snatch 1RM and did it at 65#. WOD 2 was an 8 min AMRAP of 10 OH walking lunges w/ 25# weight and 10 SDHP @ 65#. I was able to complete three rounds of each, heavily scaling the lunges and removing the weight after the first round. After all this fun and excitement we got to finish out with 50 sit ups for core. After a few I started to feel the pain in my abdomen, after 15 I really felt the throbbing of my muscles. They remembered and decided to have a mutiny. I finished it up and now I feel better. Definitely an ibuprofen kind of night!