Improvement and challenges

Another week of great WODs in the books.  I am seriously addicted to Crossfit.  Seriously...

Monday: Intervals...after warm-up and practice, we got into the WOD.  A simple 10 minute exercise, with 1 minute on, 1 minute off, 2 rounds, add up total reps = 228 for me.  KBS 18#, Push-press 40#, jumping lunges, hand release push-ups and squats.  Needed this after a seriously crappy day at work...took a lot of self control not to get up and walk out.  Happy to see my chiro, as my left knee is fine but now my right hip is acting up (over compensating, I guess) - love the shooting pain down my leg, but Tyler did an awesome job and beat it back into submission.  And I really think the squats helped.

Tuesday: first class of the Half clinic.  Currently 73 signed up, with more signing up every day.  Take that every Running Room across Canada!!  Eau Claire rocks!  I'm pacing the 2:30 to finish group, which is HUGE.  Got to figure out my pace and how I'm going to handle them all. Did a 4.5k Tempo run, to get everyone into the swing of things.  Before running though, I went and had my physiograph at Crossfit (in preparation for Saturday's weight challenge).  While the # on the scale didn't surprise me, nor the fat pounds/%, I was pleasantly surprised/pleased with my pounds of muscle.  Higher than normal, thank you very much!  Long and short of it is 1400 calories a day, with one "cheat" day a week.  Let's see what I can do with those 98 lbs of fat!

Wednesday: run club Tempo run.  Same as Tuesday, but slightly better as we all knew what to do this time around.  Enjoyed my pint and chicken tacos, and was very pleased to see that they still fit in my new calorie plan!  Sweet!!

Thursday: still crabby at work, but just breathe...but once again, tonight's WOD helped me rid some frustrations.  It was a throw-back to the Open, which I now really respect those athletes.  In 12 minutes, get as far as you can: 150 wall balls (started with 10#, but after 30 I had to drop to 8#), 90 double-unders (or 270 single skips!) and 40 muscle ups (or 3 pull-ups/3 dips for each).  I managed, in the 12 minutes to do 123 wall balls.  Period.  Good lord...Went home exhausted!!

Friday: 12 minutes of Power Snatches (I know I'm a Crossfitter when I can say this without giggling...mmph...she said "snatch"...) and OH squats (1 each, per minute).  Seems easy, but by minute 10, I was getting very tired.  And then, for time, a good old 21-15-9.  KTEs followed by box jumps (16").  Almost tripped over the box once (caught a toe, but recovered) and my knees actually moved towards my elbows...improvement!!!

Saturday:  weight challenge meeting at 8am.  Buddied up, talked planning, water and what to expect over the next 8 weeks.  I am pumped.  Then 9am class:  Team WOD - I really like these...they are fun and hard and did I mention fun?  We did (teams of 5) relay races of bear crawls around the box, followed by thrusters (2 members working, other 3 holding plank) till 5 minutes is up, then relay races of 10 burpees each, then KBS while the rest of the group hung from the pull-up bar.  You couldn't just drop off either...you had to arrange to swap off with a team-mate.  This was a very hard 5 minutes!!  Next 5 minutes had us do a farmer's walk (carrying kettlebells in each hand around the box), followed by MB sit-ups, while the others held MB overhead.  Last 5 minute portion started with relay wheelbarrow, followed by MB cleans while the team skipped.  It was "only" 20 minutes, but we were all gasping for air by the end.  Went for breakfast with J. & M., as we were all heading back for the PR Challenge tune-up at noon.  This was awesome as Coach went through every move of the PR challenge and broke it down for us, to help us with form, speed and improving our overall times.  I even got off the box at the pull-up bars!  Right now I need 2 bands, but still a huge improvement over jumping pull-ups.  Feeling them today, let me tell you though!!

This morning was LSD Sunday (sounds so bad, but it just means long, slow distance) with 7k on the schedule for the group.  Of course, the temps plummeted over night, and we woke up to -18c.  I, for marathon training, should be running 13k, so planned on meeting a friend at 7:15. run an hour, grab the group at 8:30 like normal and finish the 7k run.  However, 7:15 bailed, so I ran with the group and then planned on another 6k after.  Made a mistake by coming inside with the group, so when I went back outside (just a minute or two later), I was frozen and tired and turned around almost immediately.  Oh well...next week, I just won't stop!!

Picked up lots of fresh veggies, fruit and meat at the grocery store this afternoon.  Going to dabble in Paleo...not completely sold but am keeping an open mind.  Heck, something's gotta work to shake things up around here.  It is an interesting visit to the store when you don't pick up anything in the dairy, cereal, bakery, pasta, Mexican or Asian aisles!!  Did find coconut oil though, so I'm anxious to try it.  Cooked up my chicken breast for lunch tomorrow - yes, breakfast, snacks and lunch are packed and ready to roll!  Sweet!

Time for bed, as yet another week of work beckons.  Be still, my heart.  But it also means a week of new WODs to look forward to!!