My Remedy

It's been a less than ideal week for me.

Negotiations for this house we want have been stressful. The people selling it have been really stubborn so we've been back and forth over it, but now we're pretty sure they will accept it. Once it's under contract there will be lots of inspections - this house is out in the country so well, septic, etc. Assuming all that stuff goes ok... we should be moving in mid December. Moving and home buying stresses me the hell out... but it'll all be worth it because this house is freaking amazing.

My time in the gym has been short this week. I got a charlie horse in my calf one night and it messed everything up. I used to get these chronically - one every 3 months or so. They have been better since I became active, and this was my first one in 3 years. It was a bad one though, it's always my left calf and this time it radiated up into my hamstring. My bad hamstring. So not only could I barely walk for a couple days, deadlifting on my bad/sore hamstring wasn't gonna happen.

I finally walked into the gym and saw this

They had cute little pumpkins all over the place! I grabbed this little guy, because he very accurately represents me in the gym. He just gets me.

I needed this so bad. Lifting just helps me forget about the world for a little while. Any problems or negative thoughts I might have just fall away. It's my stress reliever and therapy session. At one point I felt this way about running, but it doesn't have the same effect on me anymore. I think part of it is when you're running you are left to your thoughts to keep you busy. When I'm lifting 200 lbs off the ground I have to focus on what I am doing. I feel bad ass when I'm in the gym, and am usually in a good mood for several hours after I leave.
My pumpkin friends summed it up really well here

Left - before lifting. Right - after lifting!

One of my favorite people has returned to the gym after an injury so that was a pleasant surprise, and I got to chat with a few other cool people as well. It was a good day.

Multiple people at my gym have told me I look like a Viking when I'm working out. Hells yea, that's me :)

Unfortunately the stress is back today... but first thing tomorrow morning I'm gonna squat it away

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!

3 year comparison

I'm back from a little weekend mini trip to see my parents. It's always interesting visiting them, they are a crazy bunch for sure. I had a good time though, didn't eat horrible and got quite a bit of activity in. My mom wanted to take a walk every 5 minutes and normally I'm down for that but - it was HOT, yo. Like 97 degrees every day. One day we got a long walk in before 10am then hung out at the botanical garden for awhile and I was just dying in that hot sun. We walked downtown alot too and even saw a crafts festival. My dad and I toured the naval base on boat which was cool. We also watchd the Olympics on and off while I was there.

Now that I'm back I am trying to buckle down again on my eating habits. I was doing good for awhile then fell off track a little bit. I didn't really gain any weight though so that's good.

This summer I am really noticing my composition changing due to lifting. And honestly I've kind of struggled with it a little. I have put on some fat compared to where I was 3 years ago, because my weight back then was incredibly hard to maintain. I was running alot and pretty much starving myself so I didn't stay that thin for very long. And over 3 years I've slowly slipped on diet and gained weight.

The left is me at the Army Ball in Augusta 2013, the right is me last weekend

I have mixed feelings. I have never had big legs or a big ass and now I have these tree trunk legs. I do love my strong legs, they are all muscle aside from my inner thighs. My whole lower body is just bigger than it's been in my whole life and it's very different from what I am used to. My upper body has always been big and now it's bigger. Up close you can tell I have muscle, but when I stand relaxed my arm fat tends to hide it. The reason I'm comparing these pictures is to help me figure it out in my head, and I think now I know that I want to be kind of a mix of these two. I was way too skinny 3 years ago, my head is way too big for the rest of my body and it doesn't look right. 155 lbs on my 5'8 large frame looks awkward. This was only maintainable for like 2 months anyway. But now I am more pudgy than I'd like. The quads and booty can stay, but the belly has got to get a little smaller. I am hovering around 180 right now. I am thinking a muscular 170-165 is where I wanna be. And you know what - I have gotten more compliments than ever in the last 6 months. "What sport do you play?/what do you do?/you're in such good shape!" so I think if I can just trim a few pounds I'll really notice a difference in my pull ups and running and be in even better shape!

I had an awesome morning in the gym, I don't know if it was my massage last week, some time off, or a little bit of extra food, but I absolutely crushed it. My watch said I burned 500 calories and that's ALOT for a lifting session. I also ran/walked with my husband, he has been doing it every day for the last couple weeks and I join him when I can.

And there's a whole nother week crammed into a post. Until next time ..

When I'm too hard on myself

It's Thursday, and I'm finally getting back to normal. It took me about a week to get back into the gym due to being ill last week - then on top of that, over the weekend I had girl troubles and also ran out of my blood pressure meds. I felt like shit on Sunday and had to go 3 more days without my meds. Seems like everything falls apart at once sometimes.

Yesterday was my first time back in the gym and it happened to be a deadlift day. We had 1 hour to work with because I missed last week, so at the end we worked on pull ups and some other accessory stuff.

Ever look back on yourself and say "Wow, I was really acting like a douche!" Well that was me yesterday. I was really down on myself in the gym and made alot of comments about how all this stuff was wrong with me right now, how I need to lose weight to get back to where I used to be with pull ups, and while we were doing some lunges my knee started to hurt so that launched a discussion about the various "broken" parts of my body. I felt so tired - my heart was racing and I thought it was about to pop out of my chest. Not having my meds was taking a huge toll. I felt like a weakling struggling to get through this workout which wasn't even anything too crazy challenging aside from the deads. After I left the gym I realized what a whiny little bitch I must have sounded like. I guess it's easy to be your own worst enemy when life doesn't go smoothly. And I am particularly hard on myself, my entire life I have struggled with self esteem issues and as my husband puts it "kicked my own ass before I even started the fight". Yesterday I realized something. No, I may not be lifting as heavy as I want to right now, but I am back where I was 1 year ago when this picture below was taken - I had just gotten my first big PR of 185.

That gym had tiny ass bumper plates but yes, it's 185

Yesterday I did it 3 times and probably could have gone another set - my limiting factor was grip because a week of not doing anything caused my calluses to peel off. This weight was challenging but doable. And best of all, I am having no pain at my injury site. I am feeling it in all the right places as opposed to before when my form was all wrong. Yes, I may be too hard on myself, but I'm making progress. Could I pull 205 on my birthday again this year? Yes, and I'll probably try for 215 at least. 230 is possible with time and training. And while I feel like I've been stuck in the same place forever, I am still pretty strong. When I feel like I'm overweight people always remind me I'm in decent shape. This week I had THREE people ask what my sport was because I looked "strong" or in "good shape" and one person asked me if I was a swimmer - yes, I used to be!

I just realized I gotta cut this short and get over to the gym for bootcamp... so until next time ....

2 weeks

I have been at it for a couple weeks now - watching what I eat and restricting calories for fat loss.

I'm down 9 lbs and 1% body fat (sitting at 26%). I dig it... thinking I'd like to see 24 or below.

So far I'm doing alright with food, I eat "bad" every now and then but I try not to go overboard with portions, and I don't give in to every single solitary craving like I used to. Some days I feel more "fat" than others, but one of the coaches at the gym made a comment about how he's already noticed me getting leaner :)

This week so far it's been bootcamp, 2 mile run, and lifting this morning. We're deadlifting on Wednesdays now, today it was 3 sets of 175x5. We upped the reps by 2 and it's challenging at this weight, but next week we're moving up to 185. Also did some other back/pull exercises before heading off to a tech session at work. Tomorrow I will run another 2 miles and then do some sprints at the end.

I'm in somewhat less pain than last week. For some reason everything was acting up at the same time, but I must have slept real good last night cause today I woke up and the hamstring was much better. Feet, knee, and shoulders are ok. The right ankle and shin are a bit sore, but I think it's cause I ran yesterday and today I just felt it when jumping rope and such.

Some days it feels like I'm not progressing at all, but today's body fat results and progress pics gave me relief and showed me I am seeing some improvement. And I have to keep reminding myself that I've been through all this before and that it's a really slow process. Change comes in time :)

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.

Fitbit Blaze!

Alright.... hitting the gym with a vengeance after a week off from lifting, and a purpose of losing some fat!

I have this habit of getting a little too excited to be back in the gym after I've been off for awhile... and I end up doing EVERYTHING

Today was different because I used my new Fitbit for the first time

It's a Blaze! I got this model because it has heart rate monitoring and it can be used with a variety of exercise types. My main things will be lifting and bootcamp class, I will keep using my Garmin for running. This will also be good to get a better picture of how much movement and calorie burn is happening throughout the day as a whole. I'm also logging my food intake in the app. With these powers combined, I will lose fat!

I am off today so I took my sweet time getting to the gym. Once there I suited up and pressed "weights" to start tracking my workout. It went something like this

Squats 115# 3x10
Power cleans 65# 3x10
Pull ups green band (as many as possible)
Bench 60# 3x10
Overhead press 65# 3x8
Push ups (30)
Lat pulldown 85# 3x10
Row 85# 3x10
Face pulls 30# 3x10
Dips (purple band) 3x10
Turkish get ups 12# 2x10

Finisher
5 Burpees
10 DB Snatches 15#
25 Jump rope
x3

That was pretty tiring considering I'm restricting calories right now. I was wobbling pretty bad on the TGU's. I am not lifting heavy because of the calorie restriction (aside from DL's with Daniel) so for the next few weeks it will be alot of hypertrophy/fat loss complexes.

The watch didn't get in my way much, the only thing that happened was during my overhead presses my wrist would knock the pause button with each press. But I can always just unpause it. I even tested it with those TGU's thinking the kettlebell knocking the face of the watch would be a nuisance... but no problems there at all, it just kind of rested there and I don't see any scratches. It's a nice looking watch and I'd hate to scratch it, but I get fierce in the gym and if it happens it happens.

Came in at 1 hour on the nose. Based on research I always used to estimate lifting sessions to burn 100-200 calories. This burned nearly twice that! My heart rate averaged somewhere around 115 and got up to 150 during the finisher. This is exactly why I got this tracker, it gives me a much better idea of how hard I'm working when it comes to numbers. I mean, I always knew I worked hard cause that's just how I like to do things - no holds barred, get all the energy out and leave drenched and wobbly. On Saturday I may do a double - bootcamp and lifting with my husband if he's feeling up to it. I'm curious to see what numbers I'll see from bootcamp.

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

Deadlift Training - Day 2

Oh my gosh. This week has been nuts!

Tuesday morning was DL session #2! It went really well. I was hella sore from Monday's exertions but I did not let that stop me. Warm up was a little different this time, again with glute bridges but we threw some single leg variations in there. I did 4 part walk outs that I can't really explain over text, but they opened up the hips and stretched the hamstrings. More stretches to activate the glutes and a special foam rolling technique too. Today I worked with #155, so we're getting close to my sticking point where in the past the lift hasn't felt right. But this time everything felt good. The higher hip position felt a little less alien this time. At times I am still struggling with picking up my hips at the wrong time but it's slowly getting better. I am thinking maybe next week working with #175. During these next 3 months I wanna work my way up to finally pulling some big weight.

I'm so tired. I realized that I exercised 3 times in 24 hours. 9:30 class on Monday, afternoon lifting, 7:30 DL training. I did alot of new, intense movements and did all the major lifts. And get this, my husband wants to go lift again this afternoon. Killin me!!!! Ahhh but I can't turn it down. It may be brutal and exhausting but I love it. And I'm really happy he wants to work out because getting him motivated doesn't always happen. I am going to caffeinate myself heavily for work today, I was dragging ass yesterday but my boss came to the rescue with an energy drink.

I'm gonna sleep so hard.

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!

Friday Pump

It's been a really good day.

Started off with this

4 sets of 5, 175# squats

Followed by this

4 sets of 5, #90 bench

Other things not pictured - shoulder presses with #35 dumbbells, RDL's, single arm presses, medicine ball push ups, dips, Turkish get ups, farmer's carries, burpees, box jumps, jump rope. I felt great today :p

Cool moment - this heavyset middle aged guy was working with a trainer and he busted out several sets of 180#-ish power cleans followed by wall ball sit ups (PUKE CITY) I was impressed... never judge a book by it's cover!

And you may have noticed these..

Yup. I need more shoes like I need a hole in my head... but my boss got these and they look so much cooler in person than they did online! It's like a cream color and the color/pattern is reversed on each shoe. I had to get these.

After the weights were lifted I got a massage, lunch, and spent my afternoon watching American Ninja Warrior. I love it, so many strong inspirational athletes (especially the women)

Now we're gaming after I cooked some spicy chicken and beans. It's been a good day.

Life Setback

So... for the past 3 months we have been patiently waiting for my husband to get a job offer in Georgia so we could move back. They said it was going to happen. Recently we got some news that it might not be happening anytime soon. Some restructuring is going on so as of right now the prospect of it happening this year is "bleak"

I've spent the weekend kind of processing this. It's a let down for sure... neither of us like this place so we want to GTFO as soon as possible so we can settle in to a community where we want to stay long term. Now he did put himself out there to be transferred to Texas, which I am totally down with. I love Texas and feel it should meet our needs in terms of less clutter/people, more things to do outdoors, cheaper prices, and just... feeling more like home by being back in the south. We looked at some houses out there and we could literally own a mansion for the same amount that we RENT a mediocre 1970's house here. Not that we'd need a mansion, but still. And that's not to say things are shitty - we have good lives with alot going for us. I'm very thankful for that. It may be hard to understand for some, but we really want to settle into a place that we know we're gonna have long term. We moved alot in our 20's and my husband has worked his ass off during that time, so I think we deserve to settle in now. For 30+ we wanna drop anchor so we can focus on other stuff like me going back to school/starting a career and saving up for travel.

So we gotta figure out what to do about our house... sell/rent it out, and then we'd be buying again when we move. It's all a bit stressful.

I haven't run this weekend or been to the gym since Friday. Just mentally accepting that we're gonna be stuck here a bit longer. But I'm also trying to shift my mindset a bit. This year I haven't done much of anything because we thought we'd be moving. Well I'm tired of putting life on hold, so next month we're taking a vacation for our anniversary and I'm going to sign up for races again. This year won't be much, right now I am looking at a Spartan Sprint and a Savage Race at the very least. I think I need something to focus on and train for so I can rediscover my motivation to run, and I need to have the drive to do something to feel a little bit happier about the present situation.

So yeah. I am bummed about staying in Maryland for an indefinite amount of time, but I gotta make the most of it. We'll eventually get where we want to be, but in the meantime I can't let it get me down or stop me from living.

Strength Benchmarks

I found this article "9 Essential Strength Benchmarks for Women" and read it to see where I stack up.

Basically it has 9 exercises where you should either be able to do a certain % of your body weight as your 1RM, or a certain amount of reps, etc. So this is a way to see how you measure up against what women "should" strive to be able to do.

Bench - I can bench 130 without a doubt. I haven't done a BB bench in a minute cause I'd want a spotter. I could ask someone at my gym but I usually just use dumbbells. I have been working with 45's lately. Any time I lift heavy I do about 5 reps per set, obviously except when trying to find a 1RM. Last time I used a barbell I did 115 twice. I am going to try for 130 soon though.

Overhead Press - 105 1RM for me which I have not attempted yet but I'm pretty sure I can hit. I work with 85, have done 95 before. Right now my shoulder is pissy so it's not the ideal time to try, but once it's in a better state I am going to get 100+ overhead.

10 Full ROM Pushups - I can do 20-30 of these depending on the day.

1 Bodyweight Chin Up - Easy, I could hit 3-5 in a set

Deadlift - Here's where I suffer big time. 255 is a lofty goal for me right now. I have never been a strong deadlifter - genetically small butt and legs, tight hips and hamstrings, that whole deal. I am naturally more of an upper body powerhouse. So I hit 205 in September, then in December I injured my back while deadlifting. Now I am doing it but with less weight and really trying to focus on form. The heaviest I have gone lately is 155 for 5 reps. I have been wary of going much heavier without having someone watch me. Well today was sort of my lucky day! I was lifting and Will the instructor was there. We were chatting and started talking about deadlifts and my injury. He said he had some time and he could help me out. Well I did NOT have alot of time, I was running a bit late this morning and had a bunch of stuff left to do (I had already squatted and I don't really like to do both lifts on the same day) but I loaded up a 135# bar quickly and busted out 5 reps to see what his thoughts were. All he said was "It looks good" Well... good!!! That's a relief. I told him that this weight was fine but any time I go heavy I tend to pick up my hips too early which puts more of the weight onto the lower back. Will's advice for me was to only do 2-3 reps when I go heavy and just really focus on form. I will try that on Friday when I deadlift maybe with like 165-175 and see how it goes. It's good to hear from a trainer that my form looks ok - cause I have been working on it

Squat - Almost there. 212 is the goal, I know I can do 205. And that's raw, so I bet even with a belt/Oly lifters I could do it right now. Somehow I'm a decent squatter, I tend to be more quad dominant but in recent months I've developed my glutes/hamstrings much more.

Barbell Hip Thrust - I don't really do these often, I find them to be kinda awkward. I can do some weight but over 200? No idea.

2 minute Plank - Oh hell no. I don't plank too often but I bet if I tried I could do like 1 minute. It's just not something I train often.

20 inch Box Jump - Getting there. I didn't do these at all but now I do, and I think the box I use might be 12. Maybe in time, but for right now I am good with the 12 and just working on improvement.

All in all - not bad. My weak points are pretty much what I expected. I have been lifting seriously/consistently for almost 1.5 years so I feel pretty good about where I'm at, especially with no formal coaching of any kind. And after today I feel like I have the confidence to work up to heavy deads again, albeit very slowly and carefully. One day I would love to pull over 300

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.

Enough

It's been a weird week for me. I haven't been exercising as often as normal and sleeping in instead. I attribute this to a week of non stop cloudy rainy weather and going to bed slightly later than normal.

Work's been stressful
!! But on a positive note, I finally saw Leon this week! He's a late 60's avid Spartan racer who comes into my work all the time.. but I hadn't seen him in months and I was kinda worried something had happened to him. So he finally came by the store - other than DNF'ing the NJ Beast because of hurting his knee on the rocks (I remember those rocks quite well) he is doing just fine and is going to be running up a storm this year.

Then this.... A former co worker of mine suddenly fell ill a few days ago, ended up on life support, and was taken off this morning. It's been heavy on my mind.

I went to class at the gym today since it's my day off. And I dunno what the hell happened but I just did not have energy today. I was struggling to get through it, even felt short of breath so I had to take some breaks. This I attribute to just eating like shit lately + stress. I went to the store today and bought some chicken, marinades/sauces, and veggies and did a tiny meal prep so I could have some more healthy options on hand. I'm not into meal prep because the idea of 5 of the same soggy leftovers all week isn't appealing at all. I'm a really picky eater and I need my food to have alot of flavor. I have some chicken marinating in some Tikka Masala sauce so I can just make it fresh. My diet really has been shitty and I need to at least make some improvements because I'm starting to feel the affects in the gym.

Tomorrow I will drag my ass out of bed to go run, and I think another class for Saturday. I'm not going to lift heavy because my body doesn't feel right, so I'm listening and will do other stuff instead. Until next week anyway.

I'm in this weird slump right now so it's time to STFU and do what I need to do. I can fix this.