Behind on blogging - catching up

It's been an extremely busy week - and I've fallen behind on these.

Wednesday 6/17:
AMRAP in 10 minutes:
5 Deadlift 315/205
10 OHS 115/75
15 Double-Under

I subbed 135# for the DL and 30# for the OHS. I got 1 round. The deadlifts took me 3-4 minutes, the ohs took 3-4 minutes, and i had a hell of a time with the double unders - though truth-to-tell i was sort of dreading more deadlifts so i wasn't sad when it took me a long time to get through them. i had about 1 minute left by the time i finished the DU - but I could not get the bar off the ground, so that was it. I taped my writst which actually really did help with the OHS. My wrists did not fail after 7 reps like they did lat week.


Thursday, we went to the theatre - Excellent show.


Friday:
WOD:
75 KB Swings 2.0/1.5P
50 Push-Ups
25 Ground to Overhead 115#/75#
Run 2 miles
75 KB Swings 2.0/1.5P
50 Push-Ups
25 Ground to Overhead 115#/75#

I subbed 1P KB swings, 45# snatches, and only did 50%.
26:13

The first 10 G2O, 20 PU and 30 KB swings took 4:30
The second set took 6:30
the last set of half that volume took 3:20
The mile took me about 11:30

I was feeling tired, run down, and migrane-y so I decided to take it easy. The 45# snatches actually felt almost easy (even though they were totally impossible today). The 1P KB swings felt harder than they should have - i think i just wasn't using enough hip. The pushups were done on a slight incline - one of the few spcaes that wasn't taken by people with heavy barbells or KB, so they were probably a bit easier, too.

I was just relieved that my head did not feel like it was going to fall off when i was done.

Clean PR!

Sleep:
11:45-8:25. Ack! Overslept. It was nice to get good sleep though. Only woke up once or twice, and very briefly - neither time was disruptive to the overall quality of sleep.

Warmup: ME, hip stretches!, and handstand practice! (or headstand practice for me)

WOD:
Clean & Jerk 3-3-3-3-1-1-1

Results:
Warmup 10x45#
50-55-55-60-65(f)-60-65!(PR)-70(f)

(There were hang cleans and push-presses)

Cash Out:
10 Step-ups R
10 Step-ups L
10 Step-ups R
*18" (ish) box

Comments:
I FINALLY got he 65# clean I've been chasing down for the past couple months. And I even managed to get it overhead once I got it up. Woot! 60x3 is also a PR :-)

I spent a long time doing extra warming up - hip openers and drilling with the PVC dowel - I really wanted to try full - from the ground - cleans, but I just can't seem to get the movement right, so I am stuck with hang cleans for now. I have a real tendency to fall on my ass when i try to drop under the bar. Not real graceful. I expect this is due to a lack of flexibility in my hips, and I hoping that the PNF non-stretching I have added in post workout will help address this.

I had limited time after the WOD for cash out activities, but I did manage to get my step-ups in, and they genuinely felt easier tonight than they have, so that was exciting, too. I barely had to use my hands at all except for balance.

The headstand practice was fun(-ish). It was a lot less scary than full handstands, and was definitely something I can envision practicing on my own. I still couldn't successfully kick all the way up and stay there, though i could stay up if some helped me. I got close several times, but i lost my balance and toppled over sideways a couple times too. I think my propriaceptive issues are working against me here. I have a very hard time telling what's straight. Hopefully with more work, I'll be able to figure it out.

Food:
12:00 10oz coffee 3/4 cup milk
1:15 - cottage cheese w/ almonds & Cinnamon
3:45 - 2 o spiced cashews
4:30 - 2 bbq drumsticks, 2 tiny yams - DELICIOUS, 2 oz milk
7:15 - 16oz milk
8:30 - 1 bowl chicken marsala, 15 asparagus spears, 16oz milk
10:50 - 1 multiv, 2 glucosamine, 4 omega-3, 2 zma

More Strength work

Warmup: run 400m (no side stitch), ME, 40 wallball in and 40 1P kb swings in alternating sets of 10. Wallball sets were with 14# ball except 2nd set was with 10#, DL skill practice. I still can't string them together at all, but they regularly get high enough. Also, my 1P KB swings are getting SO Much stronger. The first few reps of a set really easily get overhead now - i think I even managed to get my first 10 consecutive today, though the last few reps were much weaker.

WOD:
Deadlift 3x7
Warmup 10 x 45#
115-125(f r3)-115-120-120-125-125

Cashout: 100 air squats

(3 x 30sec static hold w/ active shoulders once we got home while Daniel made dinner)

Comments:
Well - I am definitely stronger than I used to be :-) Not too long ago, doing this workout at 100# would have been a challenge. Though there is something about this movement that just occasionally eludes me (usually around rep 3).

I was trying to be really good about form today, and I ditched any rep that felt like it was coming from my back instead of my legs. If I were being strict about it, I really failed more sets than just #2, because for several of them I had to make several attempts and shake things out a bit in order to get rep 3 to go up. I generally never had a problem with rep # 1 or 2.

Ironically set 7 was the best set I had all night. I finally decided to try the reverse grip, and all three reps went up, no problem. Made me want to try again with more weight, but I was already one of the last to finish.

While I was hanging around keeping nez company while she finished her set, I decided to work my air squat - keeping my form as clean as possible. So I did 100 squats - not for time, just slow and steady. My form on these has really improved. As long as I am being conscious about it, my knees hardly wobble at all now.

When we left, Max said he was planning on making us do something evil - but it's only 1RM clean and jerks. I'm a little disappointed it isn't a metcon-y thing since we've done straight strenght the past two days, but we did just embark on a "strength cycle" so we might as well take it where we can get it. I'm hoping to finally manage to clean 65# or more tomorrow.


Health:
I got my Direct LDL test back today - and the number was better than the calculated - but not much. 138 instead of 145. I was stressed about it at first, but I've done a little research, and there are definitely questions out there about whether high cholesterol really has the causal relationship with heart disease that current medical thinking says it does. And there are even some studies out there that say high cholesterol has some beneficial effects. Looking at it from a "whole picture" point of view: I am in the best shape I have ever been in pretty much every aspect - strength, aerobic conditioning, and body composition. As long as my good cholesterol stays high, I am not going to worry too much about the total or the bad.

Also - I assume this is completely unrelated - my right hand felt particularly numb/tingly this morning - it's better now, but still different than it usually is. No idea what that's about. Last night when I was finished with the 21 bench press reps of the empty bar my right arm really did feel as if it was going to give out on me - I wonder if it's related to that.

Sleep:
11:34 - 7:45 I got up around 5am and did not manage to go soundly back to sleep for the rest of the night. I know I slept some, because I remember a few dreams, but it was not restful sleep. I had a low grade headache (maybe dehydrated?) when I woke up, and I think that is the reason I was not able to get back to sleep. When I finally took some advil around 6:30, i had better luck getting back to sleep.

Food:
9:30 coffee w/ 3/4 cup milk.
11:45 cottage cheese with almonds & cinnamon - 1.25 cups
3:25 1 bowl "magic slowcooker chicken soup/stew" w/ almonds. It was delicious!
7:45 16oz milk
8:00 2.5 mango chicken sausages, 1 cup sauteed spinach, 2 oz walnuts
8:30 16oz milk
12:00a 2 zma
forgot to take my vitamins today - DOH!

Lifting weight/ improving mood

Warmup: 20 pushups, 5 hopping pushups, 15 parallette dips, 5 kip attempts

WOD:
Floor Press 5x5

Results:
(5) 5-5-5-5-5
(45) 65(f r5)-60-65-65-70(f r3)

Comments:
This was a strange night of lifting. The warmup at 45# felt heavy. I failed 65# on the 5th rep. I went down to 60 - it was hard but doable. I went back up to 65 - it was hard but doable. I stayed at 65, it was EASY, i moved up to 70, i got it up solidly with good form twice and couldn't budge it on rep 3.

But the main thiong is that i was in a FOUL mood before the workout (it was a particularly stressful and irritating day at work), and I was in a much better mood afterwards, so I will say the night was a success.

Sleep:

11:50 - 8:02 only woke up every 2 hours. Had to get up around 5:30 to herd annoying uninjured cat outside while keeping injured can inside. Headache on waking up. Third time since monday.

Food:

8:30 Multivitamin, 2 glucosamine, 1 magnesim/zinc, 4 fishoil capsules

9:30 Coffee w/.75 cup 2% milk

10:30 .75 cup cottage chese, 1.5 oz slivered almonds, 1tsp cinnamon

11:45 2 oz spiced cashews
1:30 1/2 a chicken patty sandwich on multi-grain bread w/ lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, mayo mustard (this was billed as a chicken breast sandwich but it was a gross processed patty - i couldn't eat the other half - no idea what was in that thing)
4:30 2 oz spiced cashwes
8:00 1 fried imperial roll, 1 bowl yellow chicken curry with carrots and potatoes and okra, .5 cup cooked brown rice, 12oz iced green tea
12:15 2 Magnesium/calcium/zinc tablets

Social Climbing

10a/b (time cop) (f+), 5.9 (sasquatch)(f), 5.8(west wall)(f), 5.9 east wall north of stack)(o), 5.9 (return fog)(f+)

Not my greatest climbing day. I did better when I was sick! My forearms were pretty pumped before I ever got on the wall from Saturday's hopping pushups and my abs were a bit tender from Annie - so I didn't expect to do great, but I struggled on climbs I've done totally clean before. But then there was also my monthly headache that was doing its best to try to beat me down. It finally stopped knocking somewhere in the middle there. At least it was nice just to be back on the wall after missing a week, and spending the time with friends.

My Woobie's WOD!

I'm so proud of Daniel. I think his first WOD went great. I'm just sorry I couldn't make a better effort at getting it done.

Unfortunately I woke up with a headache accompanied by queasiness, and it had not gone away by the time the workout started. I didn't want to bail completely, so I very slowly worked my way through two rounds plus one run. Alex asked for, and was happily granted, the 'priviledge' of doing all my reps for me, since I got one of the last few tokens.

Unfortunatley, I also managed to delete the time for this workout from my watch - note to self - watch deletes workouts from newest to oldest - NOT oldest to newest ... (LAME!) but since the workout took just about 20 minutes, and i completed 2 whole rounds just before the last round, I'm going to guess that each round took me about 8 minutes.

My minor victory for the day is that I managed to run every step of the three runs I did despite the steepness of the hill and the throbbing of my head.

A headache, some pullups, a WOD and a free* watch!

I woke up with a headache this morning. I don't know if it's the beer I had last night, or dehydration, or perhaps the onset of my period(?), but it feels like the same familiar icky headache I get just before my period starts, that throbs based on the position/movement of my head, and makes me feel downright queasy - which sucks, because the whole reason I stopped taking birth control it seemed to make these stupid headaches go away. I guess I'll just have to see if my period starts in the next few days to see if that's the cause. If so, I might as well start taking birth control again. Maybe then my skin will clear up, again. Stupid hormones :-|

Fortunately, this headache feels better when I am upright, and today's headache is only moderately bad, so I'm mostly ok except for occasional waves of nausea/head throbbing. (fun right?)

Headache and nausea aside ... Sometime last week I found this article posted on the main boards for National CrossFit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6371554/Foot-Drills. 6 easy, fast drills to do mostly barefoot to strengthen the muscles in your feet, calves, and knees. I've started doing them every morning before I put my shoes on.

Our condo is configured in such a way that I can do "laps" from the bedroom through the kitchen to the living room and back to the bedroom. Our place is pretty small, so a full lap might be anywhere from 50 to 75 feet - not super far. Our pullup bar is in the doorway between the bedroom and the kitchen, so yesterday I decided to add the step of doing a pullup after every lap.

I should state here that currently, a pull-up, for me, means starting from standing with a very slightly bent arm, and going up as high as I can make it. So even though i usually make it pretty far up, it's not quite a full deadhang, because I don't start from full "dead" hang. For some reason, that first like 1-2 inches totally eludes me. Though I think I might be close to getting it, too.

Usually, when I work on pullups, I can get maybe 1 all the way up: clavicles to hand level, and any subsequent attempts might get as high as nose to bar. I won't get another good full ROM one for at least 15-20 minutes. A couple weeks ago I might get 1 really good one once a week. and only if I hadn't been working on pull exercises.

Today, i got ALL SIX pullups at the end of each lap face-to-door frame/hands-to-clavicles!!! All six! And there couldn't have been more than 1 or maybe 2 minutes in between. Woo-hoo! And I had even been working on my pullups the night before. Now if I can only get that first 2 inches, I'll actually have an honest to goodness deadhang pull up! Somehow, a kipping pullup still eludes me, too. ... Soon, though, I think I may have BOTH!

So, off we went to class. The last day of a strength focused week. Max was late, so Daniel led folks through the warmup, and sent everyone off to run a mile - since that's what Max had us doing every day this week. I've only been doing half a mile all week - either due to poor running shoes or a desire to conserve my strength for the strength workouts, but I had thought that I was going to try the whole mile today. Ha! It took about 25m for me to decide that a mile was not going to happen today. Every step made my head throb. As it was, it took me 3 minutes just to run 400m, and I decided that was plenty.

The rest of the warm up max had us do was KB swings - both russian and american, two handed and 1 handed. I worked with the 8kg KB to try to keep things light and focused on form.

The WOD:
Kettlebell Hang Clean and Push-Press 7-7-7-7-7-7 each arm

Results: (in kg)
8-12(R-PR)-12-12-12
Clean - 16

Comments:
Max kept changing his mind about whether we should do 5 or 7 sets of 7. I kept getting struck with headrush-y waves of queasiness, so I did 5.

I warmed up with and did my first set of Clean & PP with the 8kg KB. There wasn't much challenge on my left, and it even felt pretty easy on my right, so I decided to try the 12kg. I could clean 12kg just fine, but the first time I tried to PP the 12kg with my right I got it up about 6 inches before deciding it just wasn't going to happen. So I went ahead and did 7 with it on my left, and decided to try again with my right. To my astonishment, it actually went up! All the way! I couldn't do 7 unbroken, and it wasn't always pretty, but with some rest in between reps I managed to get through the rest of the workout only using the 12kg KB! This is certainly a milestone for me.

I found that I could only get the KB up with my right if I was properly and powerfully using my hips as a propellant. And if I was, then it was practically easy. If I got lazy or tired and didn't fully drive with my hips, that KB was not going to get all the way up. It was pretty exciting on those reps when it did, though :-)

When the workout was over, I tried the 16kg KB, and I was actually able to clean it with both arms, but I couldn't PP it with my left, so I didn't even try with my right. Still - that was pretty exciting too. It'd be nice if there were little mid weights you could add to the KB handles, or something to get intermediate weights since the intervals between KB's are so huge. - Especially at the lower weights - you get jumps anywhere from 100%-33%


After the workout, we went to REI - Daniel was in dire need of a belt - and I got distracted by the watch counter. I've been watching SteepandCheap.com pretty closely, hoping a good watch would show up because mine seems to utterly freak out after 16 laps - even though it has 26. And I thought it would be really fun to have a watch that could do Tabata intervals, too. That's where I found this little beauty. It's lovely, and slender, has a 50 lap memory, the ability store multiple workouts (up to a total of 50 laps1), 2 interval timers, 3 alarms ... no idea why I might ever need three separate alarms - but still - it has them. ... I do have 1 complaint, and that's that the chime between the first and second intervals, is just a single, short, relatively quiet beep. However the chime after the second interval is much louder and more robust, so I figure for tabata, I can just set the 10 second rest to be the first interval, and the second interval to be the 20 seconds of work since I am much more likely to hear the quiet beep while resting, and will need the louder chime for the end of work sets.

I was going to put it on my Christmas list, but the lady @ the store told me that that this is an older version of this model watch, and she wasn't sure how long it would be available. The new model is NOT this attractive, and I totally fell in love with THIS one, so I decided to just get it for myself. The decision was made much easier knowing that we had a $120 REI dividend that needed to be spent. Also - REI was having a deal where you could get $20 off any purchase of $100 or more. Between the two of us Daniel and I managed to purchase $170 worth of merchandise today @ REI, and yet we only spent $32. SWEET!

Camping in Mammoth - part 2

Saturday 8/2: Hiking to Shadow Lake

So Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. We had a nice leisurely breakfast with the other folks in camp, but couldn't convince any of the rest of to join us. The plan was to hike 3.5 miles up to Shadow lake and back. We had some thought that if we were feeling good and making good time (since we didn't get started until 11am) that we might continue on to Lake Ediza a bit further along and a bit further up.

This is the meadow at the start of the hike - the mountains we were hiking into would be just a bit farther left in this photo.



About 4-5 years ago I started hiking with poles. I found that they were a great help with my balance - especially with things like crossing rivers, and that it let me take some pressure off my legs both going up and down hill.

The hike to Shadow Lake has three distinct stages it starts out at about 8200ft, goes relatively flat for about 1 mile, drops to 8000ft over about .5 a mile, goes flat for .75 mile or so, and then goes up up up to 8700ft in the last 1.25 mile or so.

Since I knew that there was going to be a lot of up (and therefore also a lot of down, I opted to bring my sticks. You can see me and my poles (and some gorgeous scenery) below:


By the time we got to shadow two hours later I was feeling tired, but not 'done'. The climb from the bottom of the valley to shadow had been harder than I felt it should be given my gains in strength and endurance, and our pace (my pace really, since Daniel is a born billy goat) had slowed considerably.

We spent a lovely few minutes on a large sun warmed rock jutting out into the lake. Refueled a bit, rested a bit, stretched a bit. I have to say that the weather was absolutely perfect, and as long as you were in the sun, there was a pleasant lack of mosquitoes and flies.


We consulted the map, and it looked like Lake Ediza was about 2 miles further on - and only 500ft further elevation gain, so I decided that I'd like to push on for that (It was never a question for Daniel ;-) ). Since there wasn't going to be a lot of 'up' for the rest of the hike, and because I was starting to feel like they were at least as much of a hindrance as a help, I decided to put my hiking sticks away for the rest of the trip to Ediza and back - fully expecting to pull them out to descend from Shadow.

To my great pleasure, I discovered that I was much faster without them, not only on the flat parts but also going up and coming down hill. Daniel said it was like I had taken my training wheels off. LOL - and it actually felt a lot like that. The strength and endurance I have gained with CF finally made the appearance I was expecting it to. I was definitely faster and stronger and nimbler than I have ever been hiking. It was so much fun!

We got to Ediza around 2:30 - turns out it's closer to 2.5 miles than 2.



Once we got there we did some burpees (after all it WAS day 20 of the burpee challenge and where better to do them than near a beautiful alpine lake) and had lunch.

The first set of Burpees is @ Lake Ediza - the second is on our return to Shadow lake. You'll notice a slight camera shake in Daniel's set of burpees @ Shadow Lake - the photographer was attacked by a bug ....

Part way back down to Shadow from Ediza I started developing a headache. :-( I tried fending it off with food and plenty of water, but it was getting pretty insistent by the time we reached shadow. I tried adding Ibuprofen and electrolyte tablets to the mix once we stopped and rested (and did more burpees), and they kept the headache more or less at bay until we got back to camp, but it quickly bloomed into a full-fledged migraine. It was a bummer of a way to end a day that had gone so well and been such a personal triumph.

It had taken Daniel and me 2 hours to reach Shadow lake on the way up, with me using my poles. On the way back down - and pole-less, it only took an hour and a half. We were concerned about the possibility of missing dinner, so Daniel was setting a pretty fast pace on the way home - but I was able to keep up the whole way back. Our GPS device shows a little pause sign every time we stopped to take a rest - and the only pause between shadow and the end of the trail was when we came to an unfamiliar turn off in the trail and had to stop to figure out which way to go. This was not a pace I ever could have maintained at the end of a 12 mile hike - with (some) energy to spare at the end of it - a year ago.

If you click on the picture below, you'll get a link to the GPS data from our hike. you can view the basic info with Firefox or IE, but the Map Player function only works in IE. You can choose your background in the Map Player, and I think the most interesting one is the topo.


And here is a link to the rest of our photos from the trip: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48056&id=713406614&ref=mf


My headache didn't really subside until we got home. Daniel was an absolute hero and drove the entire 6 hours home and let me sleep, which apparently was just what my headache wanted to make it go away. But it definitely put a sour note at the end of an otherwise very enjoyable, very successful camping trip. Having had such a nice respite from my day-to-day grind sure made it hard to go back to work today (Monday).

Headache update - everything's OK!

Without going too far into TMI territory, my headaches are generally hormone related - and I generally get them about once a month, so in order to try to avoid the headaches, my doctor moved me onto a more continuous birth control cycle. Well today I got a 'visit from aunt flo' despite the birth control - which explains the headache of the past few days - which is a huge relief. I should be completely back to normal in a day or two.

The real bummer of it all is that I really feel like if I had been feeling better I would have done a really good job with Angie, yesterday. I was feeling strong all-around with all my exercises: Stronger pullup, stronger pushups, and better squats. Stupid hormones Next time.

Think I might head to the gym this afternoon

Mini-Angie

So, I've been doing battle with a migraine since Monday. Monday was the only really bad day - when I actually left work early and came home and just slept the entire afternoon. Yesterday and today have been essentially fine, except that I can still feel the pressure lying in wait - and occasionally it will flare up - particularly with sudden movements. Like standing up. :-| Headache pressure brings queasiness with it, which is a really fun 1-2 punch.

There was a window of an hour or two this afternoon when i thought the headache had finally left me, and I made plans with Daniel to attend tonight's CF class. I wasn't sure whether the headache was going to stay gone, but I knew that if I did not attend tonight's class A) I would end up staying way later than I should @ work, and B) I wouldn't really have another opportunity for exercise until Friday. So - Today's WOD:

"Angie"
For time:
100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

I thought I would maybe try a 50% Angie, figuring I could always stop if things got ugly.

So - even though the headache was back when it was time to head to class, I went. I was slow getting dressed so missed much of the warm up. I got there just as they were about to run 800m. I decided to run 400 and see how i did. It was slow. Daniel actually finished his 800 just before I finished my 400, but I was able to run the whole thing without stopping, and I did not feel any worse than I had when i started, which was encouraging.

Due to limited pull up locations with assistance, I was sharing a gravitron Machine with a classmate, that I'd never used before - it's powered by an air compressor of all things! Getting it set up was kind of tricky, and we ended up with a fairly easy setting, so I decided to do all 100 pullups when i got to 50 and wasn't tired. By the time I finished the pull ups, I was feeling pretty good, and thought I might decide to try to tackle the full workout.

I got started on the pushups, and I think my first 2-3 may actually have been full ROM! no Knees! That didn't last long though. My first set was a set of 10, but I pretty much immediately moved to sets of 5. By the time I reached 50 I was feeling pretty queasy again. I thought I could probably try to push through it, but I decided that it was probably smarter not to tempt my headache into a full relapse for another missed day of work.

I rested for quite a while after the 50 pushups. Mostly considering whether I should just stop altogether. But the hardest part was over, and I figured a few situps wouldn't kill me.

I did 50 slowish, but entirely consecutive situps. By this time class was nearly over, and the folks from the yoga class that was about to start wanted to get into the room. I headed down stairs to wait for Daniel. Again I though about just being done, but Daniel was still working on his pushups, so I had a few minutes to wait, so I decided to try the squats.

I actually had a bit of a breakthrough with the squats. I did 50 consecutive, full ROM . Slowish, but steady. I finally figured out how to 'make room' for my hips by keeping my feet apart and angled out which allowed me to get below parallel without losing my balance. That was pretty cool. :)

Afterwards, while I was waiting for DanielI tried a couple pull-ups on the downstairs gravitron - the one i ususally use, and I could definitely have been using the 80# setting. I could even do 1 or 2 at the 70# setting - but that was really hard. I definitely couldn't do a huge number of reps @ that level, but it's more than I could do before. Which is progress!

So - overall a sort of blah workout - but good progress on pushups and squats. And after showering and resting a bit I actually felt pretty good for a while, so I'm really glad I did it.