2 days in a row

I did scale A @ 45#s. This WOD really socked it to me. In a good way. I felt really good with my thrusters. I was getting really good hip extension, which enable me to get the bar over my head swiftly. The hang cleans really gassed me. I thought for sure it would be the thrusters, but it was the hang cleans. Now, all 8 rounds I did the 7 reps without a break, but after complete the set it would definitely take me a second to catch my breath. 

The High pulls I had the habit of breaking them up into 2 sets of 5. Overall I'm happy with my work. I collapsed on the floor, feeling that yummy euphoric feelings. My shoulder is definitely sore, but not in pain. I did the shoulder mobility WOD with Rader today, so hopefully it will help the soreness pass quickly. 

More hot tub action tonight, so I'm really drowsy yet again. Good night!

For time:

Run 1K

50 Wall Ball 2-fer-1's

25 Flying Pull-ups

Scale Version A:

Run 1K - I ROWED!

30 Wall Ball 2-fer-1's

15 Flying Pull-ups (one hand at a time)

My time: 14:54

I loved this wod. It kicked my ass. I rowed because my calves are super tight from the sprints on Sunday's team WOD. It took me 5:04 to row 1000, which means I have yet to improve on my 500m time. I've plateaued at the 2:29-2:34 range. Oh well. Rowing is low on my "things to work on" list. 

I love/hate the 2fer-1's. I like the challenge, but boy are they tiring. Esp. after the row, I could only do 2 at a time before having to take a couple of seconds to catch my breath. It felt like the 30 wall balls took me a long time to get through. 

Onto the bar, I used a 1.5" band. I violently kipped and reached behind me to the 7ft bar, hoping that my little hand would take. Times 15. It was not cool. And it ripped up the hands good. No blood for me, but quite a few did escape unscathed. 

I collapsed on the floor and had that feeling I chase... it was great. My body was felt like a big beating heart. The heat rushing to my face. Mmmm. 

My body is in healing mode. Even though I had 8 hours of sleep last night, I felt really tired in the middle of the day and took an hour nap. I can only assume it's because it needs the sleep to heal my sore parts. It's not even 11pm now and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open It's like I'm a baby or a puppy. It could also be that I had hot tubby time with Suzy this evening that really made all mailable and relaxed. I put my tight calves against one of the water jets and it felt soooooooooooooo good. 

Ok, can't fight the sleep monster anymo...re.

Littlest Giant

www.LITTLESTGIANT.com

This feels familiar

Version A:

21-15-9 reps

Pull-ups

Handstand Push-ups

(Kipping for all, 21 set strict attempt is okay)

My time: 13:26

My shoulder is not acting right again. No pain, but lots of tightness and limited range of motion. More clicking. Now, I did think that maybe the past 3 WODs being heavily shoulder reliant that it may have stressed it out too much; especially since I hadn't used my left shoulder for the past 2 weeks until this past Tuesday. My right shoulder feel great, no soreness, no clicking. I'm hoping that the tightness and soreness in my left is due to the fact that it is "shocked" from being worked after being on a break, not a re-injure.

I plan to take the rest day tomorrow. I should get worked out enough this weekend.   


Updated 082710 12:10PM: I forgot to mention that there was an kick up to a handstand drill yesterday during the warm up. I don't like being upside down. It took me about 4 months to feel comfortable to do a GHD sit up. I still hate doing the scaled HSPU on the box. Skin the cats make my tummy hurt. Well, after Zeb gave me thorough step by step on how to get inverted in a handstand, I gingerly put my hands on the ground and kicked up. I made it a point to keep my shoulders active and my arms locked out, and lo n behold, I was in a hand stand against the wall!!! Woo hoo! I did about 10 more kicks onto the wall. A couple times my shoulders went slack and I can feel the added pressure of my weight in  the entire area. Maybe this drill is contributing to my wonky shoulder today :( But still totally amped that I conquered yet another "I can't..." This Crossfit shit really works ;)

Kunoichi, the 10th orifice

Kunoichi (くノ一^?) is the term for a female ninja.


A popular etymology would derive the term from 九能一 (能 "nō" : talent) with Japanese numbers "ku" (九) for "nine", the particle "no" (の) for "and" and "ichi" (一) for "one", literally translated to "Nine and One". The meaning for this name is derived from the number of orifices on a female body. A male has nine, a female has one more (vaginal opening) and possesses the skills to make use of this orifice as well. Another theory asserts that the term is apocryphal and coined in the writings of Ninpōchō novelist Futaro Yamada


~Translated from http://gogen-allguide.com/ku/kunoichi.html by Wikipedia

Love letters to Dr. Izumi Tabata

"Test 3"

Tabata Squat

Max reps of Muscle-ups in 4 minutes

The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals. Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals. Begin time for muscle-ups immediately after the last 10 second rest interval. Test score equals Tabata score multiplied by number of muscle-ups completed.

My score:

Super stoked about my Tabata squat performance. Rounds 1 & 2 clocked in 20 squats. Rounds 3 & 4 did 19 squats. By round 5 I was really tired, and did 17. Round 6 got back up to 18 squats. And rounds 7 & 8 I really had to really fight for 17 squats. I remember there was 7 seconds left on the clock in the 8th round, I was at rep 12 and I knew I had to go hard to get to 17... and I did, and it was painful. 

The last time I did Tabata squats, and used the traditional scoring method of your lowest rep, was in March. My score was 14, and I remember being quite proud of that then. So I'm really glad to see that I've improved in the past 5 months :)

I scaled the muscle up AMRAP to 4 banded dips/4 banded pull ups to equal 1 MU. My shoulder felt good, especially when my arm locked out on the rings supporting my weight, so that's a good sign.

For the warm up, there was 3-3-3 Deadlift. I started at 85#s, the first set of 3 being a "warm up." I slapped on 2-10# plates for 105, and that seemed easy. Added 2 more 10# plates for 125 and I did 5 reps and it felt effortless. Feeling "strong" in the moment, I decided to add 2-5# plates to equal 135#. I lifted the barbell and I didn't feel strained; I actually did 5 reps very quickly and could have done more, but knew I didn't have any more time before the start of the WOD. Take into account that my 1RM is 165# and my "go to" weight for high rep deadlift WODs is 105# (and usually I'm gassed at this weight), I'm quite happy that I have gotten stronger.

I have been diligent in the my efforts to attain double under SKILLZ :) Today, I chained together 11, and can consistently chain an average of 6 to 8 DUs with a short "recovery." While I have more work to get where I want to be, I know this improvement will greatly improve my times with WODs that have Double Unders in them. Yay! On average I spend about an extra 30 mins each time I'm in the box devoted to just working on my double unders. I know that I will have to start giving this type of attention to my pull-ups for me to see any gains in that arena.

If you're reading this, check out my new blog, Littlest Giant.  It is here that I will track my experience of acquiring my Level 1 Crossfit Certification, transitioning into applying the skills gained at my cert class by way of training, acquiring my CF Kids cert and hopefully one day "make" LITTLE GIANTS in my own box. So go to www.littlestgiant.com, bookmark it or "follow me" and share in the adventure :)

Supreme

Scaling Option A:

3 rounds for time of:

50 Jump and touch (14-12")

40 Squats

30 Sit-ups

20 Push ups

10 Pull ups

The jumping was crazy. My target was 13.5" above my highest point from my hand. My neck was killing me, not the jumping... I got vertigo fast. It made it difficult to do continuous jumps. 

The squats were not that great as well. My hips seemed really tight, I should have done the hip prep. Crazy enough, the ab-mat sit ups right after the squats felt great. Round 2 did my 30 situps straight without stopping. 

I scaled the push ups to just 10 reps a round. Still not wanting to stress out my shoulder with high reps. But the shoulder feels great. No more clicking, either. Just playing cautious. 

Since taking a break on my shoulder, doing the pull ups were difficult, like I had lost a lot of strength in my upper body. I used the 1" white band.

I could not imagine doing 5 rounds of this. Yuck. Took Hopper 26 mins. Amazing. And he did it prescribed!! 18"--- They don't call him "Hopper" for no reason. 

My 2 days of DMB was phenomenal. There is nothing more electrifying than live music. It floods my frontal lobe with immense waves of serotonin, and I feel nothing but elation and invincibility while swimming in the chords of the music... Saturday night, I really let go, just gave way to abandon. I never felt more alive. I was laughing and crying all at once. It was supreme. 

Sometimes I look around and question if the person next to me is experiencing a similar nirvana as I in the midst of the music. I mean, there are so many people who stay in their seats, and barely move their heads to the rhythm. They can't be feeling what I'm feeling, right? All emotion and feeling being bottled up... The emotion is so immense in me that it's like a champagne bottle all shook up, pressure just building, wanting to be released. 

I guess we all express ourselves in a different manner. I'm sure that person feels as deeply as I allow myself to express... 

I've got this

Three rounds for time of:

15 ft Rope Climb, 5 ascents

21 Ring dips

50 Squats

My scale: 

3 rope lowers 

15 push ups

50 squats

Did push ups on my left arm and the shoulder didn't have any pain. I was a bit apprehensive but it worked out ok. I am glad to lower the reps to 15. Overall the WOD was "good enough." I didn't feel too pushed. After I called time, I immediately got up and started to jump rope. I had the goal to get 50 DUs. Being warm from the WOD, I easily chained up to dozen DUs at a time. After getting to 50, I then felt beat up like I normally would after a WOD. I am going to test out a method where I don't immediately lay down on the floor after the workout, but immediately pick up the jump rope and do 50 DUs. I know the guy Ryan has the same tactic; he immediately jumps onto the rower and rows 500m. I'm not sure if this is something Rob Orlando does or where on the journal I read this but I know a firebreather makes it point not to collapse and die, but to got right into another cardio movement to "cool" down. So I'll give it a try as another method to push myself. Esp. since I'm scaling way back for my shoulder. 

My abs have been so sore since my GHD day. I love/hate the feeling. As well as my calves are sore probably because of the jumping pull up. Ahhh. 

DMB tonight. Should be a good time :)

The Spin Cycle

"The Laundromat"

For time:

35 Box Jumps (24"/20") -16" is all I need :)

25 Pull-ups (CTB, regular) -Jumping Pull up

20 Ground to Overheads (95/65) - One armed DB G2OH

15 Forward Rolls

20 Ground to Overheads (95/65)

25 Pull-ups (CTB, regular)

35 Box Jumps (24"/20")

I liked this WOD. Except the forward rolls. They spun me around. The jumping pull up wasn't challenging, but I'm being really good about not working my shoulder too much. I snatched the dumb bell overhead. 

Knowing that Amy did this RX'd at 16:30 just amazes me. She really kicked butt. 

This just blows my mind

My gears they grind
More each day
And I feel like
They're gonna grind away

And the city blocks
They drive me wild
They're never ending
Mile after mile

I just don't know what to do
I'm too afraid to love you

It's heaven on earth
In her embrace
Her gentle touch
And her smiling face

I'm just one wishing
That I was a pair
With someone
Oh somewhere

All those sleepless nights
And all those wasted days
I wish loneliness would leave me
But I think he's here to stay
What more can I do
I'm wringing myself dry
And I can't afford to lose
One more teardrop from my eye


Too afraid, I'm too afraid
I just don't know what to do with myself
Thinking all about you
Don't know what to do
Don't know what to do
Drivin' me out of my mind