Whatever works

So after negotiating our butts off, our house is finally under contract! Now just comes 8.000 different inspections, and provided the house isn't in horrible shape, it will be ours on December 16th!

Yesterday I got a great workout in, which did include a whole bunch of heavy squats. My back has been bothering me lately so I belted up.

#185 for 5 reps, x4

I always tell myself I'm gonna run a couple miles over the weekend. But it almost never happens because my leg day is usually Friday and I'm way too sore to run. So yesterday I just ran after I was done lifting. Brought my running shoes, a pair of running shorts, and a pullover cause it was like 40 degrees. Made sure to wear a bra I can run in. So I just changed, took a GU for some energy, and headed out to the sidewalk that runs along the road by the gym. My Fitbit's batteries were dead, and I also discovered the battery on my Milestone Pod was dead too. So I have no idea, but I guesstimate close to 2 miles. My legs were mad at me for the first few minutes but they acclimated and I started to feel pretty good. And NOW I'm sore, but it doesn't matter because I don't lift again until tomorrow! I think this is something I'm gonna start doing on the regular, as long as I have time on that day.

Post lifting run!

That's about it for now. My husband is really sick right now so hopefully I don't get it and remain 3 for 3 on not getting sick this year.

Life is moving

Things are progressing

We found a house we LOVE about 40 minutes west of here. Just waiting to get some more info from the seller and then we'll most likely put an offer on it.

I am going to get my Yellowhat stuff set up sometime this week and get a plan in place to start intern-ing (?) at some of the early morning classes. I need to get my cert renewed, so that means taking some courses and renewing my CPR cert. I am also going to take an olympic lifting course just for fun.

The next 2 months are gonna be crazy in the best possible way.

Short term plan - work both jobs. Teach 530 am class. Train any clients/lift until 9, then go to my other job. Long term plan - quit other job, I don't wanna be in retail working weekends forever. It'll be alot at first but things should even out eventually. Hopefully this will still be me

Good news is, deload is complete and I'm lifting heavy again. Next week is gonna be 200 for 5 reps on the deadlift. I remember when 200 for 1 rep was but a dream...

Deadlift Redemption

10 months ago I experienced an injury.  I was in the gym deadlifting when at the end of my last set I felt a twinge in the left side of my lower back. A few hours later I was in intense pain and had to go home and lie down. Little did I know I'd have to rebuild my entire range of motion in my lower back. Things like sitting down to tie my shoes were impossible. Over the next 2 months I started stretching and getting back into light lifting. My back began to feel better. But still I avoided deadlifting until summer of this year. I began working with a coach to help me. We fixed my form and progressed weight slowly as I began to feel more comfortable with it again. Things went well for the most part, my persistently angry left hamstring made things challenging at times but we've been working on alot of hamstring and glute strengthening. I have learned much.

After 3 months of deadlifting I was at the week of my 30th birthday which could only mean one thing - PR week!

Here I am on Friday staring down these deadlifts again. On my 29th birthday I got a 205lb deadlift. One year later, after having to rebuild myself back from negative nothing, what could I get? I know I could get more than 205 because I have been doing sets of 4-5 reps at 195. So I warmed up, belted up, and put 205 on the bar. Easy. Up to 215. Still easy. So now up to 225 which was kind of my soft goal, seeing as how I squatted that on Wednesday. I wanna be able to at least deadlift the same amount if not more. Daniel got the camera out for some video. 225 happened... so now the question was, go for 235? Let's do it. Wiggle into position, grip the bar... deep breath, squeeze glutes and lats... and this was one slow, ugly mofo of a lift but it happened. But of course, Daniel didnt' get it on video cause his hand was in the way or something. And you know video makes everything official so I had to do it again :)  I set up and got it a few inches off the ground, it wasn't happening again. So it appears right now 235 is my 1RM. And I'm fine with that. This is my worst lift and I am basically starting over with it, so this is good for right now. I know where I'm at and I can start working my way up to 250+ from here.

It feels good to be deadlifting again. It's still hard as hell. It freaking wears me out every time. And I know it's never gonna get any easier... but I'll get better

30

Well here I am, 30 years old.

I have come a long way from where I once was. I was once alot more sheltered, introverted, and self conscious. Over the years I have worked in alot of different professions and environments, met all kinds of different people, traveled to and lived in new places. Each experience helped form who I am today. Running, lifting, and obstacle racing have been huge parts of that. 

I have been alot of things over the years. I never thought "athlete" would be one of them. It started with running, which led me to run road races, trail races, and eventually even obstacle course races. Then almost 2 years ago I went to the gym. I started walking into the weight room more. At first the goal was to supplement my obstacle racing and running goals. My training had no real rhyme or reason. Then over time I started picking up heavier weights. And I liked it - A LOT. Lifting made me feel like a badass, and that feeling translated to the outside of the gym as well as I became more confident in myself. My body changed - for the first time in my life I didn't have a pancake ass and my legs became tree trunks. This has taken some getting used to because I got bigger - but also stronger. After awhile my training became more focused around lifting heavy and challenging myself physically. Changing gyms happened about a year ago when I found a functional fitness gym that catered to my needs better and had the most amazing "family" who inspired me to push even harder. And here I am now, training 4 times a week and just doing whatever I can to improve myself.

Running has fallen by the wayside and so has racing. I am just not into it like I used to be. Sometimes I feel bad about abandoning running, the thing that first shaped me into an athlete. But I can't let myself feel guilty for pursuing a passion. Weightlifting gives me that feeling that running once did. As a taller, larger woman I have never been agile or fast. Team sports were never my thing, and there was that one time my mom signed me up for gymnastics... yeah. With running I got ok, but I knew I wasn't cut out for endurance running. As a child I was good at swimming and even then had alot of upper body strength. I have muscle power and endurance. I can crush weights in the gym for HOURS. It's like this sport was meant for me. 

I am a weightlifter. What direction I will go with it, I'm not really sure. I will probably attempt a powerlifting competition and when I move I will probably end up at a Crossfit box. As long as I can lift heavy shit and feel awesome.

Tired gym face

And to help celebrate my birthday yesterday - I got 30 started off right with some PR attempts! I slept in, ate some good fuel, and got into the gym to discover it empty aside from trainer Sean. He was benching heavy so I asked if he could spot me for this PR attempt. But first it was time to squat. 

My old PR from April was 205. Goal - anything over 205. I did my warm up sets, belted and braced up for my attempt at 215. I got a good explosive push out of the squat which meant it was TOO EASY! Loaded 225 and fought to get that bar up which means yep, that's my max! 

This could be 2 big plates on each side!

Ok, feeling pretty damn awesome! Time to bench. I needed to beat 125 which I did 3 months ago or something. Goal - 130. I called in my awesome spotter Sean and got to work on that 130. WAY too easy. I put 140 on the bar. I was kind of in disbelief, like can I really lift this thing? The first attempt I had my grip too wide and I didn't really get it, so I corrected it and went in for attempt 2. That was one ugly lift and I had a teensy bit of help from Sean, but I bench pressed 140 lbs. 

And this could be 1 big plate + on each side!

I had NO IDEA I would do that well. Sean was like "well you must be stronger than you think you are!" I guess, god damn. Having no one to compare myself to, I did some research and I am OVER the standard for a (not even) 2-year old weightlifter. I am really happy with how well I did. Now the pressure is on to get a 225+ lb deadlift because theoretically you're supposed to deadlift MORE than your squat, but it is my worst lift and I have had to build myself back up after injury. But tomorrow I'm gonna get it, even if I have to use straps to deal with grip strength. 

30 will be my strongest year yet. 

Confidently strong

It's Thursday morning... a rest day! I am enjoying it after 3 days in a row of crushing it in the gym

I am so happy to have my binder. Why didn't I make one sooner? I am logging every exercise I do - how much weight and every rep. In 3 weeks I can see where my gains are happening. Furthermore, if I am really tired and want to cut corners this helps me do all my reps - because if I write them down and didn't actually do all of them I'll feel like I cheated. 

#175 with squats was a bit too easy last week. #50's for dumbbell bench. Heavy Turkish Get Ups were done too. I am also making huge improvements with push ups and pull ups now that I am doing them twice a week. Yesterday I got 11, 9, 7, 6 with pull ups and that's the best yet. I think when I can do 4 sets of 10 I will start using the purple band. I got some heavy pulling done with #120 too. The gains are real!!

The Black Hats are starting to notice me more too. Jason kept making comments about how inspiring I am and how he'd love to have me on the MMA side. And that was cool, because anyone can do MMA as long as they sign up/pay for it, but it was almost like a personal invitation. There's a new trainer and I think his name is Sean, we talked for a good while on Monday and then on Tuesday I saw him messing around with the grip trainer. It's these little metal cylinders that hang down off the top of our racks and you can grab them and hold on, do pull ups, etc. to improve your grip. I messed around on these things with my husband like 3 months ago and I couldn't even really grab onto them. So this guy is like "Come on over and try it!" I put a box up to it so I could step up and see how many pull ups I could do. I honestly had no idea what to expect - could I even do 1 at all? Got 2! They ain't easy, I could feel my back working so much harder to pull myself up while hanging on to the unstable grips. Then I took the box away and jumped for the grips. I had my hands on them and let go. He was like "Why did you let go?" I said I dunno, I didn't think I was actually gonna make it. He said "Maybe that's what happened right there" So I tried again, jumped up and got a perfect grip then pulled myself up for 1 jumping pull up. I wasn't expecting to do any of this today and I had no idea I was capable of it. Last time I tried was so abysmal and today I rocked out 3 pull ups on it. Yes I have gotten stronger since then but so much of it is mental. Like if you watch American Ninja Warrior and see someone who looks afraid they usually end up failing because they psych themselves out. If you're confident and trust your body to do what it knows how to do, you're much more likely to succeed. Sean decided to use the bars that affix the rack to the wall and swing across them. They are really far apart so they can't be monkey barred, you have to get a big swing and use momentum to reach the next bar. There are like 10 of these and during one of his attempts he almost made it all the way across. It was cool to watch and cheer him on. No way am I ready for that though, especially not with stacks of weights and foam rollers and shit underneath me!

This week I definitely turned some heads while deadlifting and doing sprints on the turf. I don't really know why, all I do is work hard in the gym.

Oh, I got my deadlifts at #195 for sets yesterday. Next Wednesday is the last session I have with Daniel. It happens to be my birthday, so we are maxing out to celebrate. Can I get 210? 215? 225? We will find out!

Resetting

It's now been a week and a half since I started restricting calories to lose some extra blub. While on vacation I realized clothes fit differently than last summer, I looked different in pictures, and when I got back I stepped on the scale and I did not like it at all...

Since the initial weigh in I have lost about 8 lbs. I think most of it is bloat but hey, it's 8 lbs. I also measured myself one week ago and then again today. I've always had a pot belly so the largest part of my belly is a measurement I'm tracking, and in a week I have lost .5 inches off there.

My diet is better now, and I've stuck to it for the most part. I'm surprisingly not as hungry as I thought I'd be, there was really only one day when I was super hungry and kinda fell off the rails a bit. But I've been down this road before and I know stuff like that is going to happen. I don't have to be perfect 100% of the time, but as long as I do the right things most of the time the change will occur.

Lifting hasn't changed a whole lot, I'm just not going crazy heavy all the time right now aside from the deadlift. I am hitting reps with 175 there and not having any problems. Yesterday in fact I felt pretty strong with it. I'm doing bootcamp twice a week and running 1-2 times a week. Certain muscles are cranky, the bad hamstring is acting up right now but I'm stretching/massaging and it helps. The calves are also angry but they will get used to running again. As far as bootcamp goes, I wore my watch the last 2 times and was a little underwhelmed at the result. It shows calories burned around 380 for both classes. I thought it would be like 500+. Oh well, that's why I got the watch... now I know not to overeat. I am going to experiment with the watch a bit though, because both times I left it running the whole time and there are parts where we rest and where the coach walks us through each station. I wonder if pausing it during rest will give a different result. We shall see.

Back from vacation, down to business

Alot's happened in my little world since I last checked in.

Last week we took a little vacation in Outer Banks. We went for like 4 days and spent most of our time fishing and hitting the pool. He is a saltwater fisher, I have done it a little but could never really get into it. Well, when we first got onto the island we hit up TW's tackle and while there he picked out a fishing rod just for me. So now after 13 years I finally have my own rod. On the second day there were a ton of Spade fish messing with my bait. I had a typical bottom rig and they just kept on stealing my bait! This meant war! So my husband made the most ridiculous rig with 4 gigantic hooks. And I caught 3 that day. The last day he taught me how to jig and I managed to catch a Spanish Mackerel and proceeded to rub it in his face (not literally) because it's his favorite thing to catch. Here's my very first fish on MY new rod

The trip was relaxing and awesome. We didn't spend any time on the beach but my husband was battling his foot pain, upset stomach, not being on his meds due to a dr. mix up, and a really bad sunburn. But of course we did tons of silly stuff like this

Booty Treats! This is an ice cream place that's been around for years and we always made fun of the name/sign that has a turd like object on it... but we finally tried it. It was alright, there are better places on the island IMO, but it's BOOTY TREATS! And of course I had to do a squat with the sign. Ice cream + Squats = BOOTY!

I wore a little dress too, and this is super rare so we took an obligatory pic of that.

So we got back and slowly adjusted to reality. Tuesday was Deadlift day #4, we're picking up the weight (literally) and I moved up to 175. Think I did like 3 or 4 sets of 3 reps here. It's getting challenging, I can definitely feel the effects of the weight and my grip isn't what it used to be. Apart from being sore everything feels fine. The main things I'm working on are getting my chest up faster and trying to "push my heels through the floor". Next week I'll try a set or 2 at 185

Yesterday I went to bootcamp and it was a Daniel class. His classes are just brutal. He tends to run you outside and have you do lots of bear crawls and burpees. This time we didn't do our usual "break up into squads and rotate between stations" we were all together the whole time. It went something like this

Burpee ladder (10, 9, 8...) with a run outside in between each set. I got to 8 before time was called
**In between each thing we did an ab circuit - 20 V ups, 20 sit ups, 20 alt. toe touches**
20 Kettlebell swings, walking lunge across the turf, run outside. 2 rounds
ABS
10 Box jumps, 10 ball slams, run outside. 2 rounds
ABS
10 Wall Balls, bear crawl across turf, run outside. I think I got 3 rounds here. **Important note - My wall ball STUNK. I got one of the 2 black and red 14 pounders because most of the other women wanted the lighter ones. Someone must have spent some time hugging this thing because it was nasty. Every time I threw it I got a whiff :(
ABS
10 rope slams, 20 power jacks, run outside. 2 rounds
ABS

Then we repeated the whole thing but we just ran up and down the turf 3 times instead of going outside.

So brutal. The whole class was just whipped. I sweat alot no matter what, but the level of sweat on me after this was pretty epic.

Finally, I'm cutting some weight. Recently I've come to realize how much weight I've put back on. I look different in pictures and clothes fit differently. And it hit me how bad I've been over the past several months. Have I been active? Yes, lifting and bootcamp several times a week with occasional running. But have I been eating right and mindfully so? Have I been running enough? Have I been acting with purpose? No. I've pretty much been eating whatever I want whenever I want, lots of eating out and ordering food out of laziness. I can't justify it, and I'm starting to see the effects and even feel them in the gym. I need to drop some pudge because it will help me be more efficient in the gym, get more pull ups in, and be a faster runner. I also just want to get better at everything and getting rid of some baggage will help. This week I've been cutting calories and eating with a purpose - trying to get my macros right and cooking dinner at home. I've lost a couple pounds but I have about 23 left.

To help me out, I got a new Fitbit Blaze! It just got here yesterday and I already started tinkering with it. I'm familiar with them because I have a Charge non-HR, but I wanted to get this one because it can track workouts like weightlifting and bootcamp, and the HR feature will give me a better picture of how hard I'm actually working. It'll give me the best picture of how much to eat in accordance with what I've done that day. Actually I am about to go test it out and lift with it in a little bit. I am expecting 150-200 calories burned in a typical session.

That was a mouthful, but it's been like 2 weeks worth of stuff to catch up on. Time to get ready to smash some weight around

Spartan Race Workout

I did the Spartan Race workout yesterday! They hold these all over the country and they're totally free. I have been meaning to do one for awhile. And this one was at none other than my very own gym! I showed up just before 0800, signed in and got my free shirt. After a quick shirt change I headed out to the turf floor to find everyone was in lines based on their number. I looked down on my hand to see someone had written a 5 when I checked in. I get in the 5 line and started talking to the guy next to me, come to find out he had come into my store last week while preparing for Tough Mudder. My world is getting increasingly smaller, it seems I can't go anywhere without running into someone from my gym or that I've helped at my store.

So the Spartan coach comes out and starts giving us instructions using the world's worst bullhorn. We seriously couldn't hear a thing he said, except for one guy who has laser ears and henceforth became known as our translator. So our warm up was a series of squats, push ups with holds at the bottom, burpees, and reverse lunges. Lots of "I am a Spartan!" and "Arrrooo!" 's throughout. I have no idea how we were still inside on the turf, there were so many people packed in there. Eventually we did go outside to do some more squats/burpees/pushups/lunges on the parking lot, and then ran a couple laps around the buildings. Back inside for some water and then back out to do lunges around the building! This kind of sucked, but we were all smiling and making jokes the entire time. Next we did more of that same squat/lunge/burpee/pushup hold circuit. The coach then asked "Is it anyone's birthday?" A bunch of us were shouting "No!!!!" but someone responded. "What's the birthday girl's name?" I shouted out "Ed!" because it was the shortest name I could think of. "How old are you?" A bunch of us were shouting numbers from 1 to 5. Alas, we did 25 burpees. Hey, it could have been worse because I saw some people that were easily 50+. The coach also separated the people who were doing Trifectas this year. There were maybe 10 people, myself not among them this year. I spotted my neighbor, it figures he would be at the workout. He did the Ultra Beast this year and we hadn't crossed paths since, so at some point I ran up to him and asked how he did. 13 hours. Screw that! I also saw Leon! He was just hanging out spectating, his knee is still bothering him but he will race again soon. The next segment we did was animal moves, A B and C. A was for Ape. The ape crawls are fine, I do them at the gym often enough. B was for Bear, and this was annoying because people in front were moving slow so I ended up hanging out in a plank for long periods of time. Can we say barb wire crawls? C was for Crab. These sucked because my arms aren't used to crab walks. Alot of people were lunging instead, I only took a quick lunge break then switched back. At this point I was starting to get quite tired.

Back inside for more crazy stuff. The 5 line was reassembled, and we took the line and formed it into a circle. There were 5 circle like blobs around the room

Adam was kind enough to take pictures. I'm pretty much in the middle of the room. 

So we locked arms and did a group sit up. My circle was more of a blob, and I was at a really weird angle because we were a bit too far apart. We tried to adjust it but I was still too far away from them, and the guy on my right was really sweaty so hanging on while doing the situps wasn't easy. Then we all got into a plank, held it, and one at a time we had to crawl under the tunnel of human planks. THIS. Oh my god. I am terrible at planks to begin with, so waiting for the entire team to crawl under me was brutal. I took breaks. Then as soon as I was done with the eternal plank it was my turn to crawl through. And after the 2-3 minute crawl I had to get back into the plank so the people to the left of me could go all the way through. It sucked but it was really fun at the same time. Next it was back into our lines and partnering up with the person next to us. First up for us was one of us holds a plank, the other does a burpee and jumps over the other person's legs. I'm so glad my partner was a small person. Next, burpees in synch with one another. Then, 20 mountain climbers while the other person did squats - this is where I really ran out of gas because I don't do well with mountain climbers. I'm trying to remember what the last one was, bicycles and flutter kicks or something. Then it was back outside for some sprints, and we were DONE! 2 hours of Spartan crazy. Arrroooo indeed. 

This was fun. It was a challenge for sure, but there were so many great people and all of us together kept up morale, we made each other laugh and smile throughout. I heard there were 400 people there - still not sure how we all fit on the turf, but that's ok. I left sweaty, sore, and bruised, in true Spartan fashion. And I'll be back for more - looking at the DC Sprint in a couple months

Together again!

So back in the day my husband and I used to lift together. Then I switched to an awesome gym and our lifting sessions kinda came to an end as a side effect.

I guess my husband has been itching to get a little more active lately so all weekend he kept begging me to find out if he could come lift at my gym. Today was my day off so I went to bootcamp, and that way I could ask if he could come lift with me even if he's not a member... and just in case he couldn't, I'd still get my workout in for the day.

Class - a Will class today. I had never been in one of his classes before, but now I know they are intense. He tends to have you do more full body work and running so it gets tiring pretty quick. Lots of burpees, box jumps/steps/running, bosu burpees and squats, kettlebell swings and thrusters, and suicides with the sled and running. Also a massive ab circuit in there too. After all that I shopped for groceries and tried to take a nap. Then at 2:30 it was back to the gym!

So we did most of the big lifts and just worked our way up in weight
Squats
OH Presses
Bench
Pull ups
and Rope climbs! He made it halfway up and worked really hard to get there.

2 PR's today. 125 bench - I haven't used a barbell in 6 months so I was happy with this
And... I finally got 105 over my head! I had a feeling I was pretty capable of this one, I had just never tested it because of my crappy shoulder. And honestly, this weight felt kinda scary in my hands. I really psyched myself out of this one, like I wasn't sure what I was gonna do if I failed because it was over my head. The first time I picked up the bar I seriously doubted I could get it over my head, and I dunno why because it was just an extra 20 lbs. After a little bit of time I just STFU'd and moved the weight. It felt just fine! My husband even got a video :)

And my husband is now a member at my gym! I've been hoping he would sign up so I am really happy. His rate is even cheaper than Gold's was. 

I am super tired. I never do 2 a day's, but I swear if I had time I would do it (nearly) every day! I love working out. It's been a great day and now I'm ready to rest.

Training - The Deadlift

There's been a new development in my training world. I have been thinking about this for awhile but yesterday at the gym I just walked up to trainers Daniel and Scott and asked them how much a typical session runs. After my deadlift injury I feel like I want some coaching to be able to progress in the right way.

#165 felt ok, but I want to progress.

Tomorrow morning I have a mobility evaluation with Daniel. I was supposed to do a free one when I joined my gym but never did it. So that's step 1, I have a feeling my weak points will be tight hips and probably my core because I really don't train it like I should. But my hope is to train with Daniel once a week on Deadlifting/any accessory movements he feels would benefit my progress. For over a year I've gone with no professional training. I'm good with squats and bench, but if I want to hit bigger numbers on the DL I definitely need some help getting there because it's my suckiest lift by far. 

Now I'm kind of at the point where I'm entertaining the idea of competing someday. If I could pull a heavy DL at a competition that would be so cool!

Cool moment yesterday - at the end of my session I always do some HIIT/conditioning type stuff. It was dumbbell thrusters, burpees, and kettlebell swings with 10s rest. Then it was right into sprints up and down the turf, I did like 12. Scott was doing mobility training with someone and they were facing me the whole time. Later on the girl came up to me and she was like "Wow you were working really hard!" I was like Yeah, that's what I like to do! She said "I couldn't do any of that stuff" I said Sure you can. Apparently it's her first week and like many newcomers she feels challenged. I told her she will see improvement, I struggled with my weak points because I was training in ways I hadn't trained before. My gym is amazing because we don't scoff at new people - everyone started there and we all work hard so we high five and keep up the positive encouragement. I was a little caught off guard by the fact that this girl looked up to me when all she saw was me finishing up my workout. I gave her some words of encouragement and she left in high spirits, and that's what it's all about!

I also represented both my gym and my work at the open house last weekend

Yes, the open house - the thing that brought me to Soldierfit in the first place. Basically I got paid to hang out at my gym and talk about shoes/insoles/recovery products. I met some cool people and had fun in the process. I also got to watch the classes taking place and snapped a few photos.

 

A group sit up! Hold the rope over head and do sit ups in tempo with everyone else

There were also hurdles, ball slams, wall balls, box jumps, sled pushes, and more!

I'm very happy about my day off tomorrow. Now I can eat dinner and relax for a bit. Eating habits have been slightly better lately and I seem to notice a difference - my tummy is alot less bloated and huge :)

More coming later with hopefully an update on deadlift training!

Ups and Downs

I haven't been active as much as I'd like this week. But the days I did have been awesome.

Monday - squats #155, bench #40's plus a host of other leg/upper body things. I also had this insane idea to start going "heavy" on my Turkish Get Ups. A #18 bell was used, up from the #10 I usually do. I plan on doing more of these and seeing what I can get up to without dying

Tuesday nothing... and Wednesday I ended up staying home with a bad migraine and pretty much slept half the day.

But today..

Went to class on my day off. It was one of my better days, I powered through and got several rounds of each station in before time was called. One of the stations today was weird, it was like a stability ball hamstring curl but it was also kind of a side twist. It ended up being nearly impossible to do but my squad was really impressed by the fact that I could do them at all. I liked how the song "Wobble" was playing while we did them, cause that was definitely what was happening! Family Time was a bit brutal today, bear crawls, running, then burpees straight into more bear crawls.

After we were done I was chatting with Adam because he seemed way too excited about the burpees. Come to find out he had just run a Spartan Beast, so of course we ended up talking forever. Then T came up to us and asked if I wanted to go running. Like.. now? After class? Hmmm... I'm sure I could manage a couple of miles, but I don't have the shoes or bra I run in. But Adam is wearing Nano's so I don't really have an excuse. "How fast do you run?" "8-10 min/mile" Hmmm ok. Ah screw it, I'll go running. They started their watches and we set off on T's predetermined route on the sidewalks and neighborhoods outside our gym. We chatted for a bit, well as best I could while running. During the last mile we encountered some hills and it was getting harder for me to keep up with them. I haven't run in nearly 2 weeks. But I made myself run the hills and did whatever it took to stay just behind them. Ended up being 2.7 miles and I heard Adam call out 9:40 for mile 2's pace. I didn't die - it was actually pretty fun. I'm always looking for ways to work harder, so perhaps this is one of them. I'm going to start bringing my running shoes to class just in case T is there and wants to run.

After our run we chatted more and T said "You're like the poster girl for Crossfit, you're so muscular!" Welllll I dunno about all that, but thanks :) Made me feel good anyway

Chipotle and lying down on the couch really hit the spot after all that..

Speaking of running, I'm starting to slip again so I resolve to run at least once a week if not more. Tomorrow I lift some more, then run 2 or 3 on Saturday.

Lifting, Lifter, and Monopoly

It's been a pretty lazy weekend around here.

Well, I did go to Soldierfit yesterday as per usual. Only it wasn't the usual.

They are doing a "Monopoly" charity drive, and to kick it off the workout was Monopoly themed.

We had 5 squads, but they were divided in half. I was with 2 guys and we were given a pair of dice. We rolled the dice and whatever number came up was the station we started at. 12 stations total, each was labeled with a number and a description of the exercise in case anyone forgot. First station was alternating tire to floor planks. A group of women joined us at that station and all of us together would forever be known as a team. So the first exercise for a minute, then while doing jumping jacks we rolled again and whatever number came up was the amount of spaces we had to move. There were hurdles set up as a "Go" station. Basically we're moving around the room like a game board, and counted every time we passed Go. It was messy as everyone was scrambling around trying to roll dice and move to the next stations. Sometimes 2 groups would land on the same station and there wouldn't be enough equipment, so people used a nearby empty station and did that exercise instead. We didn't do every single thing, but I remember doing lunges with a sledgehammer overhead, sled pushes/jumping jacks, kettlebell swings, box jumps, squats/ropes, bosu ball burpees, and we did the overhead slam ball station like 5 times! It was crazy, different, and fun. We were all certain we were gonna win because we always rolled high and had alot of Go's. But evidently another team beat us by 2 and won free shirts. Nevertheless, it was pretty fun.

I also got to help move these big heavy shelving units at work. We basically deadlifted them. And I like how they asked me to help instead of the other 2 men that were working at the time :)

I also purchased a lifting shoe from work. Here it is!

I love the colors, they are much more blue than the website led me to believe. Right now I don't particularly need it unless I go in one day and want to hit a PR, but after I move I'll be doing Crossfit and will need it then.

It's too small

It's Monday and I'm off today, primarily to take care of some doctor stuff. I've had this mysterious pain on the left side of my chest for a few months now. I had an ultrasound and chest x ray. Breast tissue looks fine so it must be something with my sternum, so I'm waiting for the results to come back. I had my heart looked at separately and everything looked fine there. The pain isn't bad, I'm really just trying to make sure there isn't a larger problem here. I recently found out through Facebook that one of my middle school friends who is also 29 has breast cancer. Can't be too careful.

It took forever because they were trying to contact my Dr. to confirm something... so when I finally got out of there I went to the gym to do some lifting. I was feeling good because while I don't have an answer yet, we pretty much ruled out breast cancer. So I got to the gym and Sarah (manager) and Scott (instructor) were like "Come do the 12:00 class!" Uhh hmm... well today I was really just gonna lift, and I don't have my shirt. I ended up warming up on the row machine, chatting with another gym regular, busting out some deadlifts and pull ups, and then I jumped into the class. Sarah loaned me a shirt... but it was just a little too small...

Yeah, this happened. It was either this or the whole class has to do burpees because someone's not in uniform. Other than it being too short it was just tight on my shoulders.

Today's class was interesting. The first station was a mini obstacle course. He had plyo boxes with pvc pipes set into them, 2 different heights. The higher obstacle was to be low crawled under, the lower one was jumped over. 2 sets of these, then some agility ladder stuff, and bear crawl back to the beginning. Then sled pushes. I love sled pushes, but after about 3 of them they start to suck the energy out of you. Third station was with dumbbells - push up, renegade row, into a thruster. Then we had some overhead ball slams coupled with ball leg raises. Last station was another killer - kettlebell swings with Romanian deadlifts. There were other cardio and core drills mixed in there too. I think the sled push was the toughest thing today, as much as I love pushing heavy stuff, and as decent as I am at it, it just totally drains me. Still, I was able to keep the momentum going today and performed really well in my opinion.

I have quite a busy week coming up so it's going to be alot of early morning runs and gym sessions. Bring it on..

Endurance

Last week I was active 6 days out of the week!

This week started off rocky with the time change, Monday I woke up and it was already 7, too late to go to the gym and get to work on time. But come to think of it, that's the first time I have missed the gym in awhile, so I don't feel bad.

I had alot of time this morning so I did a class at Soldierfit. And it was one of those times where it was made just for me.

After a bunch of warm up stuff, the stations went something like this


20 Sledgehammer slams on the tire

20 Medicine ball slams from overhead

20 Wall balls
20 Wall ball slams, fast paced

1 Prowler push across the room

10 Leg raises with the ball

10 Kettlebell swings

Agility ladder, then 20 jumping jacks with the battle ropes

AMRAP in 10 minutes


I did every station twice, just finished up my last set of jacks when he called time. I blew this out of the freaking water. Didn't stop to take a break and I was actually overtaking some of the others. In fact I'm pretty sure I did the most reps. When I was at the kettlebell station I used a 25lb bell and the instructor was like "You're crushing those kettlebells, use the 35 next time" Which I totally could, I did the 25 so I didn't totally exhaust myself

Then we did some ab stuff which I'm terrible at and had to take breaks... I just  can't do tons of crunches non stop. But then it was back for round 2. This time I did 1.5 rounds of the whole circuit. 35 lb kettlebell this time, get all the gas out of the tank. I took a few momentary pauses during the second phase but kept those at a minimum.

This was a good day. I'm definitely a creature of endurance. I may not be good at jumping, agility, or quick movements, but I am good at doing work for long periods of time and not quitting.

Soldierfit Day 2

It's been a super active week for me following the visiting of my parents. I've been non stop since Tuesday and plan on running 4 miles tomorrow, then taking a rest day. This will probably be the new norm, 1 maybe 2 rest days a week.

I did my second ever Soldierfit class on Thursday. This was led by a different instructor and I found I really liked his style vs the first instructor's. My first class was "do wall balls for 2 minutes straight, do donkey kicks for 2 minutes straight," etc. which caused me to fatigue quickly.

This class was 6 people / 2 squads of 3 and the 5 stations went something like this

5 donkey kicks, run to the middle, then broad jump back (repeat)

10 wall ball squats, then get on the floor and medicine ball pass/chest throw into the wall 10 times (repeat)

Butt scoots to the middle, 20 bicycles, bear crawl back, 20 bicycles (repeat)

With 2 dumbbells get into a plank - push up, renegade row with each arm, then pop up into an overhead press (repeat)

Dead leg slide w/sliders to the middle, 15 crunches, then slide backwards, 15 crunches (repeat)

There were other things thrown into the mix too, which I've forgotten now

But it was far less monotonous... and it was enough to make me work hard, but not exhaust my muscles from repetition. I did well in this class, in the top 1-3 (What, I have to get competitive sometimes!) but everyone worked really hard and we all celebrated with high 5's at the end

I am also experimenting with shoe choices for these classes, as I have an ungodly amount of shoes. These Saucony Kinvara 5's worked very well. They are light, but cushioned just enough for the impact of all the jumping, and they are not constricting in any way.

Other shoes on my list to try are my Under Armor Apollo's and my Brooks Launch 3


Today was lifting (legs, chest/shoulders) and it was one of those days where I lifted more weight than I thought I was lifting - always a good thing. I haven't squatted heavy since my injury yet managed to do 165 for 5 reps, 2 sets. My max is 185 for 2 reps. Also benched with the 40's again, and did some sick farmers walks with 35 in each hand, among other things

And that's about all for today's update. I've been quite tired from all the exertion (but my sleep has been AMAZING!)

Goodbye Gold's, Hello Soldierfit

So last weekend  I worked the open house at Soldierfit and represented my store. I had always heard about it through my coworkers and my customers but never witnessed it myself. I loved the open space in the gym - a giant turf for bootcamp workouts, sprints, tire flips, pushing/pulling weights around, you name it. The weight area - tons of racks, benches, free weights, ropes, rings, and there's even a pulley rig for cable work. This place has everything I need besides maybe a treadmill. There's also a martial arts center which is cool but not something I personally need. Simply put, I was in a pretty serious gym!

The manager is a good friend/business partner of our store and she offered me a free workout so I could come try it myself.

I went on Thursday evening.... kind of had to drag myself there really, because it was after a pretty awful day and I was totally not feeling it. But I went anyway because I knew I'd feel way better afterwards.

Soldierfit offers 1 hour bootcamp style classes - kind of like military training meets functional fitness. They all start with a warm up and stretch, but beyong that each class is different. The particular class I did went something like this

Station 1 - Stand on the rim of a tire, then simultaneously squat and tricep press a kettlebell

Station 2 - Donkey kicks onto the wall

Station 3 - Wall balls

Station 4 - 10 Box jumps, then put a weight plate on the box and push it down the field and back. Rinse/repeat

Station 5 - Those circular slider things... put your hands on them and bear crawl down the field, then put your feet on them and donkey kick 10 times. Rinse, repeat

Stations 2 and 5 were hardest for me. I took 5 second breaks as needed. 

We did this 3 times. We also did relay sprints down the field and then hold a plank until the next person relieved us.

It was a good workout and very different from how I normally train. I didn't do terribly for my first class but it definitely showed me where I need to improve (Power and speed) It left me feeling pretty spent, but not sore in the traditional sense. I slept really well that night! 

So anyway - I'm going to be leaving Gold's and going to Soldierfit. How could I not? I mean look at this!

I will probably lift 2-3 x a week, do the class 2x a week, and run 2-3 x a week. We'll see how it goes. I think it's something good to incorporate into my training. I have another month at Gold's which is good cause I can use their treadmills.. March weather is unpredictable

Bye bye Gold's - it was fun but it's time for me to move on!

Fitness expo/Metcons/Rambling!

I'm sitting here on a snow day just hanging out.... regret not going for a run because the snow isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but oh well.

Saturday I got to work an expo at Soldierfit and it was really cool. My store has kind of a partnership thing going on with them. It's a gym that does bootcamp style classes, martial arts, and has tons of lifting equipment. The coworker that accompanied me was the other weightlifter at our store. We walked into the gym and our jaws dropped ...

I'm in heaven!

I might seriously start coming here instead of Gold's

The expo was alot of fun... talked to a bunch of people about our store, met some of the other vendors, and got to watch the classes in action. There was a family class and it was fun to see the little kids moving around and getting into it.

This was our setup for the expo

I don't normally work Saturdays and was called in to do the expo with a couple days notice, so my boss gave me a free shoe.

Boom. Metcon 2's are mine!
We just got them in my store and only had like 4 pairs, so of course I had to get my size while we had it. I used them for a kettlebell complex yesterday - 5 exercises, 10 reps, 11 sets.. 12 lb kettlebells in each hand. So no heavy weights but a fair amount of squatting and such. They were really awesome and I know they'll be great for heavy lifting because the heel is so firm and stable.

Now on to other stuff

So it's well known that I ate way too much and did way too little in Dec/Jan, dealing with my injury and holiday nonsense... and I felt bad so I'm now exercising consistently and trying to eat halfway decent. I know I'm not the best/most in shape looking person in the world.. and I know I will never be simply because I enjoy food too much. I just like to do what I can. I spent Saturday at that expo with my super fit coworker, this guy lifts and sprints twice a day, muscles, flat stomach, etc. I know we're not supposed to compare ourselves to others but sometimes it just happens.

So I was pleasantly surprised on Sunday when I introduced myself to a new customer to take her through our stride analysis. Her family was there and her husband came up to me and said "So are you a Crossfitter, Triathlete, or what? You look like you're in really good shape"  O_O  "Oh, well thank you.. I'm a weightlifter, runner.." Apparently this guy was an Olympic lifter back in the day so we chatted a tiny bit. But that really made me feel better about myself. I mean he's right, I am in decent shape. I can endure tough workouts that most people can't. Like that kettlebell workout, 11 sets? 550 reps? I have a ways to go, there is much more I want to be able to do training wise... physically I really just want my arms and belly to be a bit less fat. There's muscles under there, and I guess they show sometimes. I'm at the point lately where people notice them, even if I myself don't always


Every now and then when I'm feeling a little down I get a nice compliment like that. And now I don't feel so bad