Reflection

Five rounds for time of:

35 Double-unders

Run 200 meters

I came in dreading this WOD but afterwards I realized I loved/hated it. At 3-2-1 Go! I had this knot in my tummy anticipating that this was going to suck. The 10 minutes went by pretty fast. I don't really remember rounds 2 or 3. I do remember coming back from my 4th run and saw Martina on the ground resting. She gave me this look like, Finish this shit up, and I shot her my index finger saying I only had 1 more round left. 

My last set of DUs were spotty. I messed up 4 times to rep 8, until I finally got in a rhythm and finished out the remaining 27 reps in one fell swoop. Started on my run and was going as fast as I could, which wasn't fast. I just knew that I was almost done (and the finish line sounded like paradise) so I kept a nice steady pace; shit, it was fastest sprint I could muster with what gas I had left in the tank.

I collapsed on the concrete and felt my tummy convulsing, making me burp continuously. Dry heaving, a good sign that I pushed myself. 

This WOD was the cherry on top to a fun and grueling week of WODs. 

I hurt everywhere

I can barely type this. I'm exhausted, my arms are almost inoperable, and my right hand is bandaged up.
I'm super proud of myself for finishing. I really am. During the 30 round I was confronted with a "I can't." I started to cut a deal in my head saying that I would do half of the pull ups in round 20 and 10. I was starting to feel hopeless computing how many pull ups I had left at that moment (46 total left). I had to shake myself out of it, and not think of the astronomical number, but only worry about the 4 or 5 I could muster at that moment. I chipped away at it.

Ya, it was the pull ups that completely humbled me. The DUs were "rest." The Push ups were not great, I did go to failure every 5 push ups, but they weren't as devastating to my body as the pull ups. I think it's the use of my entire body when I kip that makes it soooo brutal. It almost makes me want to puke.

During the last 2 pull ups of the 20 round, I had Francisco right there cheering me on (cause I was a sad, whiney bitch at this point), I had to use a lot of force to kip. But I did it. Then I looked down at my right hand, and saw a pretty decent size flap of skin sticky straight up. Underneath that, bloody, raw flesh. Let's just say that the last 10 pull ups were a test to my pain threshold. I did them 1 at a time.

Let's take a look, shall we? 

Overall, my hands are pretty raw and tender. Typing hurts. As well, as my forearms feel really swoll. 

I'm going to sleep like a fuckin' bear hibernating in the winter. I suspect running drills in my near future since my upper body will not be in working order. 

Healing and revealing

Three rounds for time of:

50 Double unders

25 Wall ball "2-fer-1s", 20 pound ball

Wowsers this had me in a vice grip. I did this WOD way scaled back last August. I really happy with my time. I did look at the average times on the board throughout the day, and they were mostly in the high teens, so ya I'm happy. 

This was the first WOD where i used my NEW ultra speed cable jump rope that I got shipped on my birthday! I still am not use to the rope. It definitely turns faster so my jumping cadence has to adjust, and also I feel like the handles (with screws) weighs more than the other rope I was using. My wrists also can tell that one handle weighs more than the other, and it definitely has to adjust in turning the rope. 

The 2fer's were really taxing. The first 2 rounds I broke up the 25 in sets of 5 reps. In the third round, I was soooo gassed that I had to do them in sets of 2 each. Kareem and I were pretty much pacing the same the entire time, except that I would get my DUs done about a minute advance... but he would make up ground in the 2fer's. So last round, I finish the DUs, and manage to get eight 2fer's by the time Kareem finishes the last of his DU. He makes up ground so quickly that I call time only 10 seconds before him. 

I didn't feel like I had to puke my afterwards, but lungs were really burning. I had that heady, euphoric feeling for quite some time... Probably more than an hour. I'm glad I ate clean today. I plan to all week. Sunday I felt like lethargic shit. I only ate 1 meal on both Sat and Sun and they were not nutritious. 

Glad to be back in the box. I feel fresh. I really needed that rest. 

Ringling College Commencement Address

Here is a portion of Ringling College Commencement Address given on May 6, 2011:


Speaking of habits: take care of your body. Your physical condition affects your mental and psychological state in profound ways. Wherever you end up, run a Google map search for CrossFit and check it out. CrossFit is a way of organizing compressed, high-intensity workouts that make you incredibly strong in less than 30 minutes a day. More importantly, doing CrossFit makes you psychologically capable of tackling things that are challenging and out of your comfort zone, with a kind of psycho glee. CrossFit gyms tend to attract an interesting assortment of characters, who, in addition to spurring you on to mind-blotting sequences of box-jumps, pull-ups and, will be different from the people you work with. And it’s important to socialize with different groups of people, especially if the little girls among them can clean your clock. Also, CrossFitters love to make fun of themselves using XtraNormal animation, and posting those videos online. It’s a good sign when people take their pursuits seriously, but themselves, not so much.




This is exactly what I was trying to express on when I wrote CROSSFIT IS IT.  The best line has to be "Crossfit makes you psychologically capable of tackling things that are challenging and out of your comfort zone." 

24 hours of epic

Workout of the Day 5/25/2011

Strength.
Thruster 2-2-2

Met-Con.
“Annie” – 50-40-30-20-10:
Double Unders
Sit-Ups

PR'd Annie by 2:30. Sub 10 mins!!!! yaaaahooooo!

Graduated to a wire/cable jump rope. Finally! And boy do DUs go way faster with a lighter rope. 

GOT MY FIRST STRICT PULL UP. My puny arms are getting stronger. 

The set of numbers before my time are my thrusters... Can I tell you, my 1RM is 75 and my 3RM is 70... and today when I did 2 @ 73#s it felt doable. I could have totally added more weight and went for a 2RM PR. 

Day 25 of the whole 30 and shit is finally starting to come together, make sense... I think I'm done "detoxing." I don't feel crazy and neurotic. I just wish my sleep would get in order. 

I have to admit that these gains are from my clean food intake. I don't think it perchance that I saw so many gains in such a short window. All the strict PU practice came together, all because of eating well I believe. 

I'm sooooo beat... But I have an amazing next few days lined up with a wedding, some "Top" secret stuff, reggaefest, and just plain ole good company...

Life is good. 

Jeremy

In honor of "Jeremy"

Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps for time of:

95 pound Overhead squats (I used 45#)

Burpees

If you scroll down, you'll see that I did a 3x5 of OHS the night prior. This was a determining factor in the weight I chose for "Jeremy." As well, I wanted to keep the intensity high. I set a goal of sub 10mins, so I was really happy to finish well before. But a day later, after comparing myself to other people's times I feel like 8:30 is slow and I could have down better. I did do the first 21 OHS straight through, without dropping the bar. The last 4 of the 21 were pretty shakey; my legs were cooked at that point. 

The burpees were burpees. My pace was good; good enough that when I set up to the bar for the 15 OHS, I threw up a little bit in my mouth-- LOL! The second round of 15 were a bit more difficult. I dropped the bar after 7 reps. Then, I DROPPED THE BAR WITH ONE REP LEFT! I was sooo pissed. Every time I power snatched the bar up; do you know how much energy that takes? Ugh! I was soooo upset when my mid-section crumbled right after rep #14 and I couldn't keep my arms locked out. This is where I lost time. Today I really feel my time should have been sub 7 mins. 

The 9th set, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just trudged through, never stopping in the overhead squats. I did take a breather after my 7th burpee, but like for a couple of seconds. And then it was done. I definitely had that post wod euphoria/afterglow. It's been awhile since I've had that... 3 weeks? The last time was when I did half-Jack. That got me all heady. 

I remembrance of "jeremy"

Giant among us!

This post is dedicated to Chris Sherwin. 

Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

This story is just crazy.... Only in Assassin's world :D

So Martina does Games WOD 11.6. At her completion I claim her 65# bar. I slap on 2-35# plates on it. I lift it. I do not record this on the whiteboard. I add 2-10# plates. I lift successfully and with ease. 

I go to the whiteboard and record my last 2 reps: 125-145-

Add 2 more 10# plates. Lift. Done. 165#.

Add 2 more 10# plates. Liiiiiiiiift really slowly, but complete the rep with "ease" once the bar was off the ground. I was mindful to also do the eccentric movement back down to the ground, knowing it aids in making me stronger. It wasn't bad. 185#. Done. This felt very heavy, which kinda already put in a bad mood, cause I thought, If it was soooo difficult to do my current PR, how the heck am I gonna set a new one at 190? I was discouraged and thought, Maybe I'm not that strong today. 

I scout for 2 and half plates to add another small increment of 5# total. I pulled as hard as I could, but the bar would not even budge off the ground. I knew it was my head. 

I took a long rest and was determined to PR. I went to ZEb and said I HAD to lift this off the ground. On my 2nd and final attempt, I set up strong and pulled. NOthing. 

I got really down on myself. I just laid on the ground with CR and had this running loop of disappointment in my head. We goofed off long enough for the 6:30pm class to start. I decided to FINALLY strip my bar and put it away. AND that is when I found out that the 2 innermost plates were 15#s, not 10#. So this entire time I was recording my reps, I was off by 10#s. 

THEREFORE, I DID SET A NEW PR BY 10#s: 195#s!!!! I'm only 5#s away from DL'ing double my body weight. 

So my last 2 missed reps were actually attempts at 200#s. 

It totally turned my blah class into pure elation. I'm even giddy about it now, 6 hours later :)

200#s is my goal my birthday. Which is totally doable. 

For no particular reason I just want to say that I really appreciate my Coaches, Diso and Zeb. Now that I'm coaching, I have a greater respect for what they do, and I hope that I can be in a place to touch lives like they have mine. 

Paper Gangsta

3 Rounds, not for time of:
Strict Muscle-up, hold support for 3 seconds with rings turned out
L-sit, hold for 5 seconds
Skin the Cat, hold bottom position for 3 seconds
Inverted to lower, hold inverted position for 3 seconds


5 Rounds of:

15sec Back Lever
15sec Handstand/Headstand Hold (preferably no wall)
15sec Front Lever

2 Rounds of:

10 Wall Extensions (video and explanation)

Today was a fun, experimental day. I am now able to do a CONTROLLED headstand without flopping over on my back- woohoo!

So 365 days ago, I walked into Paradiso Crossfit with no idea what was in store for me. It was about a week prior that I had flaked on my complimentary one-on-one with David. Having not heard back from him after numerous attempts to reach out to him, I impulsively paid the fees for the 4 week On-ramp course to SHOW HIM that I wasn't flakey. Lol. It's weird how Diso not chasing after my business actually made me want to prove that I would be a good client.

On-ramp class began at 7:30pm. I remember walking in and Diso pointing over at Sam and Zu, saying they had just completed the on-ramp and they loved it. I must have looked scared; maybe Diso thought I was going to bolt. I didn't know it at the time, but one of my future BFFs was trying to blend into the wall. That day our introductory WOD was run 200m, 15-12-9 Squats/Push Ups/Ring Rows, run 200m. Diso jokes that after my first 200m run, I came back and my lips were white... I don't think I finished the WOD, if I remember correctly. Not sure where I stopped during the WOD, but I know it was shortened for me.

It makes me smile thinking about all the different things that were going on in the rest of my life that brought to Crossfit. Everything is so different. Even how I look at things in life. My paradigm has shifted and changed (I hate to admit it, but all those LAS sales meetings really resonated with me).

There are 2 things for which I am truly grateful for that Crossfit has brought me. One, are all the wonderful, amazing friends I have made in our box and community. I can say that there are definitely people that I have met this year that I know will be my friends for life. The pool of just plain good hearted people that have collected within those 4 walls is hard to believe... it's like the coolest people in LA all happen to work out at my gym; but then I meet people from other boxes who are just as cool and down to earth and completely defy that statement. Maybe the correct fact is that the coolest people on earth Crossfit :)

The second thing I am grateful for is my health. 2010 is the first year that I was not admitted to the hospital for any my preexisting conditions. I've gone to the ER and/or been admitted to the hospital every year since 1998. I've broken a 11 year streak. Crazy. I don't think it's coincidence. I am healthy. I am closer to WELLNESS than I have ever been in my life. Wellness didn't happen overnight, and it took a commitment on my part to be an active participant in the choices I made. I got rid of all my prescriptions(the only thing that gets prescribed to me are the WODs). No more visits to the specialists. No more fear of not being able to travel, just in case I was too far from a hospital. No more surprise visits from the first responders/firemen in the neighborhood.

Thinking back, I just can't believe I lived that way for sooooo long. I didn't know that my quality of life was so low. Now I know what it's like to be well, feel well... And you want to share that with the rest of the world. You wish they could get a glimpse of it, so they know why they need to do the hard work.

Happy 1st Anniversary, the Paper Anniversary!