Thee Total

“The CrossFit Total“
Back Squat, 1 rep
Press, 1 rep
Deadlift, 1 rep

Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! 

What more can I say? Woo hoo! 

I'm really glad that I was able to PR on both the back squat and Press, but I am even more elated that I was able to deadlift 195 AGAIN! I set that PR in April of this year, then hurt my back in May-- compounded in June-- so I have been working to get back to that level of strength. In April I was 10# heavier at 105. So, I'm sooooo stoked that I am markedly stronger across all lifts and sub 100#s.

I'm soooo happy. Not to mention my upper body is trying it's best to catch up with the strength of my lower body. Just set that bench press PR 2 weekends (70#)... And pull ups and dips are done with ease now. 

These small improvements has totally blown away the argument that I have to gain weight to get stronger. This entire time I believed that I would have to get back to 105# to be as strong as I was prior to a.) my whole 30 cleanse b.) my back injury. Well, now that I'm even stronger than when I was 105#s then that just makes me fully embrace the possibility of loosing weight... To be specific, I currently eat like shit, yet I still hover at about 95#s. Come Jan 2, I'll more that likely embark on another strict 30 day cleanse (just eating meat, veg, high fat, minimal fruit, no alcohol, no sugar, dairy ok), which could equate to more weight loss. I'll accept it knowing that it doesn't mean a strength set back. I would just have to train harder (and slower) to have strength gains. 

So many words and theories, I know. 

So sleepy. Oh, which reminds me... I've been sleeping like 11 hours a night. I guess my body needs it. I wonder if this equates to my strength, or at least lends to it.... I definitely believe that since I no longer work in that shitty job I rest better. 

Ok, bedtime 

Fishy

My arms are fried. I thought I would do the WOD @ 50#s but after a few reps I failed. So I dropped down to 40#s. Round 3, I could no longer get the bar over my chin, so I stripped off 10#s. 

One legged row still feels weird, and there is now way to get intensity up doing it. 

Again very happy to be doing anything at this point. My arms are going to get RIPPED with this hip/back injury...

Speaking of injury, I still haven't pinned down an appt with the chiropractor. I would not be surprised to find out that my injury is really having to do with the nerves around my glute. With all the lacrosse ball rolling that I've been doing, it has given me some relief. I can't wait to see the Doc. 

Fishing is still on my mind. Lol. 

I am love

Press 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

Day of my Crossfit Strength Bias regiment. Read all about it here.  At round 7, I put on another 5#s and failed. Zeb had the great idea of adding smaller increments, 2#s totaling 47#s. I was able to get it over my head once, but could not get full extension on my 2nd rep. I finished out with 45#s on my last 2 sets. 

50#s is my shoulder press 1R PR set in January when I did CF Total; this was a lot of reps, so it made sense that I was going to failure. 

This wasn't as exciting as my time I spent coaching the kiddies tonight :) 

Looking for Big Me

Practice Front Lever progressions for 20 minutes.

5 Rounds for time:

185 lb Shoulder to Overhead anyhow, 5 reps

10 Burpees

I need to work on my technique with the press progression into the jerk. My strength is in my legs, my upper body def. needs attention. Knowing this I shied away from going heavy heavy. I stayed at at doable weight, only because I have trouble controlling the bar bringing it back to my shoulders. I def. have the strength  to push press the bar; all 5 rounds the bar was getting pretty, so much so that I didn't have to jerk it... Does that makes sense? I had enough strength to jump it up so high that I didn't have to drop my body underneath it. But every time I brought it back down from that solid finish it almost killed me each time. Sooooooo my conclusion is to work on my presses, all of them, get strong and have more control of the bar so I can go heavier in met-cons not be slowed down by my lack of control. 

The burpees were burpees. 

I'm happy with my time. I felt I went hard the entire time, intensity was high. I needed to let out all the shit that was swirling inside of me in the WOD. It kinda helped. I'm glad I showed up. 

Crossfit Total

"This is my first time"

"Crossfit Total"

Back squat, 1 rep

Shoulder press, 1 rep

Deadlift, 1 rep

PRs all around! I'm happy... how could I not be. I went 5#s on all 3 lifts. I did attempt 130# on the BS and almost died. Alex was spotting me and didn't realize I was tipping forward and almost smashed my face into the ground with 130#s on my back. Not fun at all. 

I am filled with happiness. Can you feel me smiling right now? 

imPRESSive

Shoulder press 1-1-1-1-1 reps

Push press 3-3-3-3-3 reps

Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5 reps

Shoulder Press: 35-45PR-50m-50m-45

Push Press: 55-60-65-70mx2

Push Jerk: 60-55-60-60-60

Holy moly, I just realized that I set a new PR for my shoulder press. My former 1RM was 42.5#s. That's pretty cool. Shoulder press will always be something I need to work on slowly but surely. Hopefully the biproduct of me doing my strict pull exercises on the regular will be more power/strength in my presses. 

I've never really done push press for max effort, only in programmed WODs. So this is new for me. So technically 65#s is my baseline. 

As well, I've never done the push jerk for max effort. Of course, 5 rep sets adds a new dimension to the weight so it really wasn't a max effort. Knowing I can C&J 75#s I assumed that that would be where I'd start. Zeb advised to go lower in weight as 5 reps is a lot of work. And boy was he right. 60s fuckin' killed me. my 4th and 5th rep were always the ugliest and were a struggle. I'm very happy with the work I did with the push jerk today. I definitely had good speed getting under the bar, but it was mostly my arms failing towards the end that made me all wobbly.

Ok 'nuff about this boring stuff (ha!) and on to the juicy part of the day:

After class, I was enjoying my post wod SFH recovery shake (in chocolate) sitting on the bench under the white board that has the WOD posted. Next to me is Patrick. We're being lazy and watching the 6:30 class wrap up their WOD, shootin' the breeze. A man with shaved head and full beard, dressed in all black workout gear walks through the door and into the gym. 

Me: I know that guy

Patrick: Uh, ya he looks familiar.

Me: I know I follow him online (Could it be? No...)

Patrick: He definitely is someone big...

Me: Firebreathers....?

2 more people follow him; a lady holding bright red Inno-v8s, and another gentleman in red. 

The man in all black engages in conversation with Diso at the bottom of the stairs...

I look at Patrick and mouth the name "Mikko Salo?" Patrick shrugs. 

"Does he have an accent?" We both listen carefully. Yes, we can hear the distinct Finnish accent. 

My eyes almost pop out of my head when I realize it's him, and my mouth drops. I instantly become this retarded school girl who's hoping the members of her NKOTB poster would magically come to life. 

I look at Martina and Gretchen and they too have reverted to 13 yr girls and having the same dancing eyes that I do.  

The lady happened to Christy Phillips, 6th place finisher for the ladies 2009 Crossft Games. The other gentleman, I believe is Mikko's business partner, whom runs their box in Finland. They chose PCF as the box to do a WOD in prior to jumping a red eye flight back to their respective home towns. The determining factor in choosing us (cause we're definitely not the closest to LAX) was because we HAVE A SHOWER! 

They set up to do hero WOD "Jack." Watching them attack the wod with a definite plan, with deliberate breaks (!!!) to achieve their goal was fascinating. It's a 20 min AMRAP of 10 Push Press(135/115), 10 KB swings (1.5 pood/1pood) 10 box jumps. We all later find out that Christy had a goal of 16 rounds, and Mikko 18 rounds. He figures that he has 66 seconds to do one round if he wants to meet his goal of 18 rounds in 20 mins. Any time left over  of his allotted 66 secs. is "rest." Crossfit math is fuckin' genius. 

The spectators (myself, Patrick, Gretchen, Martina, Joe, Franny, Zeb, Diso... the other guy) were in awe watching them go hard for pretty much the entire 20 mins. At some point, Zeb says, "We can cheer for them right?" Up until that point were were all in quiet amazement, not making a peep. We started to cheer them on, and it felt weird to me. Like I didn't really know them, but who doesn't like to be cheered for? I know I do, I talk extensively about the how cheering affects your mental state during a WOD. Both Christy and Mikko met their goals by the end of the 20 mins. 

After the WOD we all gather around Mikko and start to ask questions about his strategy in the WOD. He shared his Crossfit math and how he uses it to set and accomplish goals. We were all enrapt in listening to him speak. It was crazy. Christy starts to shower. Mikko obliges to take multiple pictures with everyone. It was crazy. Christy comes out and she starts talking about her experience in SoCal, and how she wanted to go out to the club tonight and dance, and Mikko said that he didn't want to be drunk on the plane ride home. Then it comes up that Mikko was getting down to 93.9 KDAY's old school hip-hop, that he was dancing in the car on the way over to the box. We were all laughing and it was super jolly. Did I mention that it was crazy?

We took more group pics, this time with Christy, who is just the sweetest thing. She's only 25 yrs old. And she is a bad ass. Her body is soooo out of control. 

I do want to share that at the Games this year I had a "moment" w/ Mikko. Games were done and all the vendors were breaking down their booths. I was standing by SFH booth, waiting for Zeb, Rico and Matty. It was over 108 degrees that day. I was wearing a fun, flirty dress that was backless. In the midst of the hustle and bustle, I see Mikko walking through the sea of commotion, heading my direction. He looks tired and irritated, his head is down, as if he didn't want to be stopped by a fan. When he was about 10 feet from me, he looks up and we make eye contact; immediately his eyes light up and his mouth curls into this big smile, a genuine smile of mutual attraction. I blushed but held his gaze until he walked past me. The chemistry was palpable. 

I joked with Mel from Valley Crossfit that Mikko is soooo bad ass/the epitome of masculinity that he was able to impregnate me with just his eyes- immaculate conception! Hahaha!

I don't think Mikko would remember our "moment" from July today, but I still think there is a mutual attraction that I felt. When I was talking to his biz partner, and Mikko was engaged with Martina, our eyes "caught" each other several times-- each time making the blood rush to my cheeks:) On my departure, I followed Mikko into the changing room alone and hugged him goodbye. His gaze still felt strong and intense. I asked him when he would be back stateside and insisted that he must come back to visit us @ PCF. He said he didn't know, but promised he would come back to our box. He was still all wet and sweaty, but I didn't mind and reveled in his big-hot-wet hug. 

Ahhhhhh.... he's so dreamy. My Finnish crush. Lol. 

Back to reality Lauren. 

I did it!

Death by Press (95/65) - with a continuously running clock do 1 press the first min, 2 the second, 3 the third, until you can not reach that rep range within the minute-choose a weight that you can get at least 8 rounds with if you are scaling

Rest 1 min

Run 800 meters

Rest 1 min

Death by Toes to bar - do 2 toes to bar the first min, 4 the second, 6 the third, 8 the fourth, and so on until you can't reach that rep range within the minute

Rest 1 min

Run 800 meters

I'm just happy I complete the WOD. The shoulder press ladder really took me by surprise. I thought I went light at 35#s. My PR is 42.5#s. But during the 7th minute I went muscle failure. I really wanted to push press it!!! I just couldn't get the bar above my nose :(

I set off for my first 800m run with Laura at minute 8. And surprisingly I kept a good pace. I didn't stop once. I was jogging slow but I felt good, had energy... Didn't get all wrapped up in negative thoughts. Got back to the box and started my K2E. I think I could have done more than 4 rounds but my hands were really in pain. In the 4th minute it took me 40 seconds to do the 8 K2E, so I only had 2 seconds to rest until I had to attempt 10 K2E. I only got to 7. I had to readjust my hands every 2 reps, they felt raw and were in pain. If my hands weren't so tender, I may have survived a couple more rounds (maybe!)

As I started my second 800m, my head was not in a good place. The words, "I don't want to run" kept playing on a loop in my head. I recognized immediately my pace was slower than my first time around. When I got onto Ida street, I started to be keenly aware of how my legs were aching under each stride I took. I could feel all the negative thoughts starting to take over. I was desperate to not let them take over. I kept slow and sad pace. When I got to the turning point I took a break and walked 5 paces. I took another break about 2 blocks away. Then I tried to pick up my pace on the last 150m. In the end I only added 40 seconds to my first 800m run, which in my opinion is great considering my rocky running history. 

I felt heady and work out drunk for quite awhile after this WOD. It was great. Thanks, G!

PS- I got back in fish oil 3 days ago :) Still doing Daily Balance Shake for breakfast + fruit. Got back on Paleo 2 days ago. I hope I can be disciplined.

Press your luck!

Shoulder Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3

Upper body strength is definitely my downfall. I have made strides in the past 10 months of doing Crossfit, but I know there is always room for improvement in building my upper body. I looked into all my past blogs and could not find PR for the shoulder press, but I went into the WOD thinking that my PR was 40#s, but it's unfounded. I know that in high rep WODs that included SP, I would default to 35#s. So I'm glad that I got to set a "PR" of 42.5#s . I know that working on my SP will lead me to handstand push-ups, but that's far in the distance. 

I want to make a quick mention of a blog that I stumbled upon, No Crying in Crossfit.  In the right margin, the author of the blog has a heading "BAD ASS CROSSFIT LADIES," followed by a long list of blogs of female Crossfitters. I slowly peruse all the witty blog names, some menacing, some just their given birth name... when I come across "Sweet Assassin." For a second, I thought, "there's another sweet assassin?" I hit the link and it lead me right HERE. I was dumbfounded and touched. In my journey discovering my physical capabilities, meeting goals, taking big strides, seeing the changes in my body and how I approach everyday challenges, never ever have I thought myself a bad ass crossfit lady. This moniker I save for the other women that I cheer on in my box, that I marvel at in the Games, and those I meet in our growing community... but not little old me. So to see myself placed in the group by a BAD ASS CROSSFIT LADY is humbling and inspiring to keep progressing in my crossfit journey. 

Crossfit keeps getting better and better.