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.