Back to CFPA After 2012 Games Break

Back to CFPA with a new rig installed. WOO HOO! I was ready to get my sweat on today, and Tim definitely handed it to us. First we started with our strength.

Kettlebell Clean and Press: 4 Sets with 5 Reps each of 12kg

I stuck with the 12kg because I didn’t want to push it with my elbow. Maybe I’ll practice with 16kg at home.

Here’s our WOD:

3 Rounds

20 Medicine Ball Snatches

(20#/14#)

10 Med Ball V-Ups

3 Rounds

20 Wall Balls

20 Med Ball Russian Twists

During the first round of V-Ups, I was over extending my arms and trying to lift the ball to bring it to my feet. When I extended, I felt a little something move out of place and then quickly go back into place. I should not have tried to lift the ball with my arm straight. Instead I switched and bent my elbows. I got through the first round, but the second round was the toughest. The wall balls slowed me down. I can’t seem to catch the ball in a good place without dropping it. I got 2-3 reps in at a time.

Result: 10:00, sort of RX’d. Sometimes I hit the target, sometimes I didn’t.

When I got into work, I quickly busted out some back squats.

Back Squats: 135#(8)-125#(10)-115#(14)

07/11/2012 – Good Eats

I said I wouldn’t work out today but I did. I think I’ll take Friday off. I went to the gym and did back squats and barbell hip thrusts. Lots of leg work because I want to give my elbow a rest. I checked out with 5 rounds of two handed kb swings(Russian style) and GHD situps.

For breakfast I had egg whites, veggies, and raspberries.

For lunch I had black beans with a burger party and braised cauliflower.

I didn’t take a pic of my last two meals, but they were a package of Paleo stix with raw peppers!

Dinner was … I forgot! Shit. It was just meat and veggies with macadamia nuts as a fat source. I need to stop buying Mac nuts because I can over consume them very easily! Guess I’ll be eating lots of avocado!

07/02/2012 – Pistols and Renegade Rows

It’s a short week, but I have to keep my workout schedule the same. Today we worked on Pistols.

5(BW)-5(BW)-3(12kg)-3(12kg)-1(16kg)-1(16kg)

I’m a bit wobbly with the 16kg. I have to remember to keep the core tight going up and push through the hell.

AMRAP 12 Minutes:

250m Row

10 Renegade Rows(45#/30#)

10 DB Power Cleans

Results: 3 Rounds + 211 m Row

I tried to go as fast as I could with the row. I averaged under 2 minutes for the first round. The second two rounds werer shitty. The renegade rows were the hardest part. I tried the 30# dumbbell, but I couldn’t keep my abs tight and not move my shoulder as I was pull the dumbbell up. I decided to go with the 25# to make sure form was perfect. During the 3rd round, I was doing 1 rep at a time. That is how much it sucked!

Once I got to work, I lifted with bench press and back squats. I was going to do Front Squats but didn’t want to irritate my elbow again.

Bench Press: 90#(7)-85#(9 reps, almost 10 because I clipped the holder)-75#(14)

Back Squat: 65#(10)-85#(10)-95#(7)-115#(5)-125#(7)

Once that was done, I busted out my 11 push ups for the 100 Day Push Up Challenge. Ouch!

06/11/2012 – Workout Recaps

I haven’t been blogging consistently because I’ve been busy with other stuff. Here’s a recap of what I did last Wednesday, Friday, and yesterday at CrossFit.

(06/06/2012)

Bear Complex – Finished at 73#

I love the bear complex workout, and I should of fought harder for the 83# weight. I finished the 83# at 6 reps. I had one more to go and couldn’t get it. The hardest part was the back squat to push press, then cleaning again. It’s that moment when I’m telling myself I could get one more, but my body is telling me NOOO! LOL. I tried again at 83# but could only get 4 reps. I decided to rest and finish the last last 3 reps even though I know it wouldn’t count.

(06/08/2012)

Press – 53#(3)-63#(3)-73#(3)-78#(3)-80#(1)-83#(1)

3 Rounds for Time:

400m Run

15 Box Jumps 24″

15 Pull Ups

Result: I forgot!!

I knew I had to go fast with the WOD. I didn’t do it RX’d because the box jumps were 24″. I felt sluggish and tired. Probably because of all the crap I was eating this past week.

(06/11/2012)

Snatches: 63#(5)-73#(3)-73#(3)-75#(3)

5 Rounds For Time:

5R/5L Kettlebell Snatches(24kg/16kg)

10 Goblet Squats

10 Burpees

Results: 8:53 RX’d

Bench Press: 80#(8)-75#(12)-70#(14), 40 GHD Situps

I was not feeling the snatches today. I’m going to stick at 73# until I know I can snatch with good form CONSISTENTLY. The WOD was fun. I love KB workouts, so this was right up my ally. I still need to use the hips more. I got to work and did a set of bench presses. I went lighter this week with slightly higher reps because I haven’t done bench in a couple of weeks. I did 40 GHD situps, 20 before the bench and 20 after. I wonder if I’ll feel anything tomorrow.

I hope everyone is still working out and eating healthy. I definitely haven’t been eating well, but I’m back at it now, and ready to stop abusing my body. It’s been through hell this past week and a half, and I can’t totally feel it and see it. I took pics yesterday and they were not pretty. It’s okay though, I’m not going to dwell on it. I made a conscious decision to eat whatever I want whenever I wanted, so I’m not going to feel guilty about it. Another journey begins to get stronger and leaner!!

05/04/2012 – Gymnastics Day at CFPA

Today was definitely a different kind of day at CrossFit Palo Alto. We worked on our gymnastics, and that meant that we got to tumble, skin the cat, and handstand hold. I’ve never been good at gymnastic movements, especially all the bodyweight stuff. And to tell you the truth, when it was time to tumble, I felt a little awkward and thought I might break my neck. Once I stopped thinking too hard, all the movements started to get fun. My goal for this cycle is to be able to get into a handstand just by swaying. I tent to brace myself before I get into a handstand, afraid I’m going to hit the wall. So, I want to be able to get into a handstand by just swaying into the position, and then holding the position so my feet don’t touch the wall.

Onto our simple yet tough WOD:

8 Minute AMRAP:

1 Kettlebell Swing(2pood/1.5pood)

1 Thruster(95#/65#)

2 Kettlebell Swing

2 Thruster(95#/65#)

3 Kettlebell Swing

3 Thruster(95#/65#)

…

Keep going till the 8 minutes are up

Just by looking at this, I knew it was going to be a tough one. Of course the first 4 or 5 rounds were pretty easy. I wasn’t rushing through the rounds either. I took my time before picking up the kettlebell at each round because it was freakin’ heavy. My form wasn’t great with the 24kg bell, but I did it anyways.

Result: 8th Round + 10 reps. RX’d

I had a busy day at work, but I wanted to get some lifting in. I did back squats and reverse lunges(30# dumbbell). I did the same weights at last week, just more reps at each weight.

No good eats post for today because I don’t want to talk about what I ate. It wasn’t Paleo, and let’s just say it was a long time coming. I’m over it.

04/27/2012 – Friday’s Workout

Today’s the last day of our 4 week cycle and we finished it off with Turkish Get Ups. There was a new rep scheme this week, so I decided to stick to the 12kg bell. I tried to hurry along and get done with the 5 round, but there was no time left.

Turkish Get Ups: 12kg(1)-12kg(2)-12kg(3)-12kg(4)

It was hard for me to keep good form in the last set. Probably because I was getting tired and anticipating our WOD.

3 Rounds For Time:

400m Run

10/10 KB Snatch(24kg/16kg)

20 Ab-mat Situps

Result: 10:36 RX’d

I knew going all out on this WOD was the only way to get a really good time. I thought I would of been sore from my 5.5 mile run yesterday, but I think it actually helped. My legs weren’t as rusty and I was able to do my best and keep up with the guys in class. I wouldn’t say my form was the best on the KB Snatches, but I got through them without putting the bell down. I was really happy with how I did in this WOD because I knew I was trying my best. Since I’ve fueling myself properly, I think I’ve gained a lot of endurance and strength. It should be interesting to see how I weigh in on Sunday. I’ll re-evaluate what I’m going to do next if I don’t see any body fat loss.

Since today was a training day, therefore high carb day, I wanted to move more weight. I had to go into work today, even though it was my off Friday, so I took advantage of my time there to do some back squats and weighted lunges.

Back Squat: 125(6)-115(8)-105(10)

5×12 Weighted Walking Lunges(30# dumbbells)

Damn, the back squats were difficult. It could be because I didn’t take my time to warmup as much. I got through the sets with 3 minutes rest in between. My goal is to get to a one rep max of 200#. After, I decided to add on weight lunges.

Main, I think the extra workouts really put a number on my appetite because I could not stop eating once I was home. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

04/18/2012 – Wednesday’s Workout plus Back Squat RPT

Today was long metcon day. It was my first time going into a long WOD fasted, so I drank my BCAAs beforehand. The class was pretty full today, and we were all ready to get after it.

3 Rounds For Time

400m Run

21 Push Jerks(95#/65#)

500m Row

12 Handstand Push Ups

Because I started with the row, I mis-read the WOD and thought we had to do 21 HSPUs. Boy am I dyslexic. I got onto the jet pack and started to crank out 21 HSPUs. I stopped multiple times, and as I was almost half way through, Fitbomb started to run out the door. Actually, everyone had left to do the run but me. I was wondering what happened and why I broke down so fast. After I was done with my 21 HSPUs, I looked at the board. Doh! I was only suppose to do 12! Duh Steph…wake up! Everything else felt okay. I should of kept my row average above 2:15, but it definitely slipped down to 2:20-2:30 range at times. Push jerks were difficult because everything else was difficult. I finished though, and that always feels good.

Result: 23:21, used 65# and blue jet pack.

Since today was high carb day, I went to my work gym to bust out a quick Back Squat set. I quickly warmed my way up to 95#, then I started the Reverse Pyramid Training(RPT) rep scheme.

Back Squat: 115#(8) – 105#(10) – 100#(12)

I guess I could of started with 125#, but I’m new to this, so I don’t want to overdo it. Between each set, I rested for 2-3 minutes. Tomorrow is active rest day. I’m going to walk in the morning. I want to do Pilates, but I doubt my schedule will allow for it tomorrow.

Hope everyone had an active day! Good night!

03/15/2012 – Good Eats and Back Squats

Happy Thursday. Today is my virtual Friday, so hopefully I can sneak out of work and work on my side project. I geeked out and downloaded Lion OS X for my mac and XCode. Now I just need to finalize on an idea and do the work. I just want to get my hands dirty and see where it can take me.

But before I get ahead of myself, I need FOOD and a workout to get through my day.

On twitter, I follow Breaking Muscle, and Eva T.(one of the Nasty Girls) is currently programming the strength and conditioning workouts for the next few weeks. I decided to do one of the workouts.

Run 3x800m

Work up to one heavy set of 5 Back Squats

I did the run on the treadmill at 7.0mph. I walked 400m in between each 800m. For the back squats I did 3 sets of 10 reps at 45#, 65#, 85#. Then I got to 105# for the 5 rep set. I felt that was enough for the day because I have a workout tomorrow, and then 12.4 on Saturday. I don’t normally do Back Squats, so it’s good to get some practice in. A good goal for me is to try to get 1.5BW Back Squat. I got a long way to go though.

6:30PM(S1) – SFH Whey Protein with 1 tbslp of flax seed.

7:55AM(B) – I was starving when I decided to eat breakfast. Once I finished my meal, I was still starving!

10:20AM(S2) – 3oz GrassFed Ground Beef patties. Lots of yummy goodness. 3.4 oz roasted sweet potato to go with it. I needed this today!

1:30PM(L) – 4oz of chicken breast with salad. I forgot to bring my broccoli today, same like Tuesday.

4:15PM(S3)- I was at pan era doing some work and research. I bought a cup of coffee, but didn’t drink much of it. Love the smell of hazelnut though. I can prepared and ate my snack, macadamia nuts and chicken jerky. Delicious!

6:30PM(D) – 4oz pan fried salmon with mashed cauliflower and roasted kabocha.

No work tomorrow. Time to hang out with the kiddies, research some more, and head into 12.4 on Saturday. Fun times.