03/28/2012 – Zercher Missed PR and Tabata(x6)

BLEH. I’m a little disappointed with how I did with my Zercher Squats. Here were my loads:

Zercher Squat: 35#(5)-85#(3)-115#(3)-135#(1)- 155#(1..sort of)-155#(F)

So I decided to start off really light with the 5 reps and save my energy for the 1 rep maxes. Obviously, I wanted to beat my previous PR a couple weeks ago. Maybe the jump was too high and I didn’t warm up enough by doing another set of 5s, but at 115, the squats started to feel heavy already. When I got to 155, taking the bar off the rack already felt weird, and I couldn’t position myself properly. Once I squatted, I feel into the whole, and sort of lost control. As I was going up, I could feel my elbow pushing against my thigh, and by nature I used it to help me get up. I guess my setup wasn’t right from the start. I wanted to try again with 155# and make it legit. I totally lost it again in the squat. I didn’t keep my core tight AGAIN as I got into the whole, and basically lost all the momentum to get back up. Sigh! No bell ringing for me today. Sort of sucks.

Here’s was our WOD:

This was a fun one, but the ring dips were the hardest. In the first cycle, I think I got 13 reps. That quickly went down to 10,7, then 6. I should of been faster with the grasshoppers, but I wanted to make sure that every rep hit my shins. Shuttle run was good, I was at 10 for half the cycle, then kept my reps at 9. I forget what I did with the snatches, but I think they were consistent for all 6 rounds.

Result: 29 reps RX’d

03/21/2012 – Zercher Squat PR and Elizabeth

Today was definitely a good day at CFPA. I got to ring dem bells for my PR! I worked by myself today because a lot of our five tribe members were out. Bronwyn and I were the only ones who represented for the girls. Where my girls at?!

It’s our second week for Zercher Squats, so after doing a warm up set and readjusting the height of the rack multiple times, I finally felt like I was in a good groove. Here were my loads:

Zercher Squats: 85#(5) – 105#(3) – 115#(3) – 135#(1) – 145#(1)

The squats already felt heavy at 105, maybe because I jumped too high too soon. That is why the jump between the second and third set wasn’t as high. I then made the jump to my single reps. 135 felt great, and then I loaded the bar with 140#. I checked and realized my previous PR back in December 2010 was 140. Why do my PR again, just try and add more weight. I got 145# and was happy!! Hopefully I can get to 150 or more. The PR wasn’t pretty, but when are your maxes ever pretty?

Elizabeth

21 Power Cleans(135#/95#)

21 Ring Dips

15 Power Cleans

15 Ring Dips

9 Power Cleans

9 Ring Dips

I used 83# today for the power cleans. They felt great and I tried to focus more with the hip explosion. Soon, I will conquer the 95# RX weight, SOON!!! For the ring dips, I used the red band. Another goal would be for me to do a WOD with RX’d ring dips. That would be INSANE!!!

Result: 9:53…I think I wrote 9:43 on the board, and that’s probably not right.

03/07/2012 – Zercher Squats and MORE SNATCHES!

Since it’s a new strength cycle week, we were introduced with Zercher Squats today. This is going to be fun, because I haven’t done these since September, and that was when I came back to the gym after having Lil’ AMRAP. Here were my loads:

Zercher Squats: 65#(5)-85#(5)-105#(3)-115#(3)-125#(3)

I definitely felt like I had more in the tank and could of gone to 135 for 3 reps, but we stopped there. I got a few weeks to get my PR up.

Our WOD contained more snatches…my hands are never going to heal at this point. LOL.

12 Minute AMRAP:

12 Power Snatches(95#/65#)

10 Knees to Elbow

8 Calorie Row

The snatches still wasn’t good form. I need to practice more hip action. Gotta focus on more mobility and opening it up. Nonetheless, it was a great WOD, and it was nice to share it with everyone in the 5AM class.

Result: 3 Rounds + 17 reps RX’d

09/28/2011 – Fun with Zercher Squats and OHS

Before I get to thw workout, I just wanted to say that my eats have still been clean and yummy. I made Kalua Pig on Monday, and now we hae pork that will last us a week or more. That is mainly what I’ve been eating, with different sides of veggies such as chard, tomatoes, roasted curry cauliflower, green beans, etc. As for sugar, I’ve been eating grapes and watermelon still. I have pictures, but I’ll post them later.

Anyways, onto Wednesdays’ fun workout. Its our last week with Zercher Squats, and when I did it in December, I PR-ed with 140#! When I did it while pregnant I got to 130#. Here were my loads this time around:

Zercher Squats(I can here Tim saying this in my hand every time I type it. LOL.): 65#(3)-85#(3)-100#(1)-110#(1)-120#(1)

Now that I look back, I forgot that we did tis in May because I couldn’t find it in my log book, so I thought I couldn’t get to 140. Had I known that I did this while pregnant, I would of tried to go for 130# to match what I did while preggs. Oh well, there is always next time. All the reps felt good, so no complaints there!

Our WOD was a good met-con one:

3 RFT:

400m Run

15 OHS(95#/65#)

10 Toes to Bar

I haven’t done OHS in months!! Like maybe 6 months, because I can’t recall doing it pregnant. I quickly decided to do it RX’d because I love OHS even though it is the hardest movement for me. I knew I wouldn’t be fast either. I was slow on the run, and on my last round of OHS, I dropped the bar at least 4 times. It was a good one, and I finished last! Yes, I’m super slow!

Result: 16:18 RX’d

Zercher Squats and Burpee Heaven

Is it burpee heaven or burpee hell?! Maybe a little bit of both, but I’ll get to that later.

Today, I partnered up with Jeff who was visiting from out of town. We worked on our Zercher Squats, and since it was the second week, I felt like I should give it my all.

Zercher Squats: 65#(5)-85#(3)-95#(3)-100#(1)-110#(1)

All the reps felt really good. It wasn’t perfect with 110# because I felt like I was doing the stripper move, but I got it up!

Onto the burpees…Tim said our WOD was a “classic” one at the beginning of class. I was trying to figure out what it was, thinking of all the named WODs. When he wrote it up on the board, it was a simple one…

100 BURPEES

Hmmm…I should of been practicing my burpees more while I was away. I knew I could get through 30 easily because I did them a few week ago. How was I going to get through 70 more without slowing down. My legs started to burn at about 40, and arms were getting tight too. I need to practice speed, so maybe I’ll do death by burpees next week. I just told myself to keep moving no matter how slow I am to get up for the jump overhead.

All in all, it was a great simple total body workout, something that I need to get rid of this flab. But next time, I want under 10 minutes!!!

Result: 10:42 Rx’d

Zecher Squats & Fight Gone Bad Practice

I almost woke up a little late this morning. I was actually up at 230 feeding lil’ AMRAP, but I couldn’t go back to sleep till 330. When I finally did wake up, it wad 410, and I had to get moving. I pump before I leave to the gym, because it would be very uncomfortable if I didn’t.

I was actually the first one to arrive, so I practiced my wall balls. I’m definitely not hitting the 10′ target all the time. I’m not quite sure what to do except practice practice practice. The reason why I’m practicing ow is because I’ll be participating in Fight Gone Bad 6 this Saturday, and I want a good score. I think the wall balls and box jumps will slow me down. BTW, if any of my readers would like to donate some mula to the FGB6 fundraiser, click here! Its for two great charities!

Now onto to today’s workout…Zercher Squats!

We haven’t done these since the end of April! So long ago for me. I teamed up with Jackie today. It’s great working with someone because you get that extra push that is needed when working out. Also, you can watch their form and help them out or encourage them!

Here were my loads:

65#(5)-65#(5)-75#(5)-85#(3)95#(3)

My first set felt a bit heavy so I decided to do it again. I definitely feel weaker now because all the sets that I did today were pretty challenging. It should be interesting to see where I am at at the end of this cycle.

Onto the metcon:

3 min, run 240m, then max wall balls(20/14#)

3 min, run 240m, then max Ground to Overhead(45/30#)

3 min, run 240m, then max box jumps

3 min, run 240m, then max pass-thrus

Wall balls! Box jumps! Definitely things I need to work on for Saturday’s event. I used the 14# medicine ball and 25# dumbbell for the ground to overhead. I was barely able to touch the bottom of the 10′ target with the wall balls. So frustrating. Fatigue definitely set in too, so it’ll be worse on Saturday! The other movement I had issues with was the pass thrus. I was only able to get 9 in 90 seconds! I was just beat up…arms sore, breathing hard, tired legs!

But I felt great after the WOD was finished.

Result: 69 reps…Scaled.

Whole30 – Day 4(08/04/11)

Another day in the books. I didn’t have much of a breakfast, because my mornings are pretty hectic. I fried up 4 eggs for lil’ munchkin’ and I, but I ended up eating maybe 1/3 of it. After I fed lil’ munchkin’, I quickly prepped dinner, which was Red Curry with Grass Fed Brisket by Nom Nom Paleo. I used red curry because we like spice, but I should start stocking up on the yellow curry as well.

When it was about 11, I was able to finally warm up some leftover slow cooker chicken and carrots to munch on. It wasn’t much, so I was supper hungry, and snacked a lot. I ate mangoes, hard boiled eggs, and some procscuitto.

My order of Seasnax arrived just in time as well, and I had two packets. They are yummy! I’ve tasted the onion and original flavor. I love that it doesn’t have any soybean oil in it. Can I bring these to the sushi restaurants and ask them to use these wraps instead?!?!? Wishful thinking huh?!

Once we got the kids to bed, hubby dug into the curry beef stew. He said it was DELICIOUS and had about 4 bowls. Not full bowls though. If you know my husband, he doesn’t pack on a full plate at once, unlike yours truly. He just gets enough to eat, then go back for more. He says it’s fine dining…maybe that’s why he never gains any weight.

Here’s the pics of my eats…

05/11/2011 – Zercher Squats and Double Under Failures

I woke up three times last night, and one of the reasons was because I had a calf cramp. Anyone pregnant every have these? For some reason, I was stretching in my sleep and all of a sudden my calf muscle on my left leg started to cramp up. It F’IN hurt! I had these when I was carrying lil’ munchkin’ too. You know what my Dr. suggested? Taking 3 tums before I go to sleep, and 3 more when it happens. Really tums? Oooooh k, doc…sure!

Luckily, I woke up in time to head to Crossfit Palo Alto. Our strength workout today was Zercher Squats, and I missed last week, so I wasn’t expecting any type of PR. Especially now that I’m in my 3rd trimester, and about 10 weeks away from meeting lil’ watermelon, which we have yet to name. I digressed…back to Zercher Squats.

95#(3)-105#(3)-115#(1)-125#(1)-130#(1)

For some reason, the 95# felt heavy for me when I did them. Maybe because I wasn’t warmed up enough, but it got easier as I went on. My original PR was 140#, and if I wasn’t preggs, I would of tried more. Hopefully I can keep around the same numbers when we do this again.

Onto our WOD:

Double Unders(50-40-30-20-10)
Burpees(4-6-8-16-20)

I was the last one to pick up a rope, and there wasn’t any short ones left. I should of just used my heavy rope since it was my length. But I didn’t, and was stuck with a long one. I did the first 50 double unders, and I was the last to finish. I had so much trouble with them though, only stringing together maybe 13 at a time. That was at the beginning too. After, it was more like 6 or 7 at a time. I hear Tim yelling from across the room…”Steph, get those double unders”. Dammit! After my 4 burpees and 10 DUs from the 40 set, I decided I was going to go back to the singles and do the 3:1 ratio. I never made up the time that I lost with the 50 DUs and ended up last AGAIN. I love it though, because it’ll just push me to work harder with these met-cons after baby bump. I’m a little disappointed that I gave up, and I’m sure Tim was too.

Big ups to Fitbomb who was the only one that did it RX’d, and killed it under 10 minutes. Now, it’s my turn to catch up!

Result: 12:50

BTW, I only gained 1 pound since the last weigh in at my docs. Woot Woot! Sad thing is, I celebrated with brownies and cupcakes at my office party. I told you…being unprepared can really hurt the clean diet!!! Do as I say, not as I do.

Zercher Squats – 04/27/2011

Since it’s the first week in our strength cycle, we worked on Zercher Squats today.

I paired up with Carol and we used the fat bar which is 15#s. I only learned about Zercher Squats at Crossfit Palo Alto, and I think it’s a great strength exercise to help your front squat and back squat.

Here were my loads:

Zercher Squat: 65#(5)-75#(5)-75#(3)-95#(3)-100#(3)

We goofed on our math for our 3rd set, so we made quite a jump. Hmm…now that I do the math on paper, how heavy is the fat bar? 15 or 20#? Can anyone confirm? Anyways, my one rep max with the Zercher Squat is 140#. Let’s see if I can keep that max next week.

After Zercher Squats, we did a short wod:

4 Rounds For Time

240m Run

9 Power Cleans(135/95)

12 Games Push-ups

I used 85# for the power cleans and I didn’t do games push-ups because I have watermelon in my tummy. The run felt good, I just had to remind myself to control my breathing, and breathe through my nose. The cleans got difficult after the run, but I tried not to stop too much. With the push ups, I should be able to do all these push ups without stopping, but I did take breaks on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round.

Result: 11:10…5 seconds behind fitbomb!