Yep. The push ups were bad.

Ever play that game at a slumber parties called “Light as a feather, stiff as a board”? One person lays on a table. Someone tells a ghost story and then five or six people chant “light as a feather stiff as a board” while “levitating” the person with their forefingers? The theory for why it works is that by telling the scary story and chanting those words the person becomes flat and rigid and thus easier to lift than a person who is relaxed. Same reason protesters go limp when authorities try to drag them away. It is harder to lift up a limp body. If I practice push ups using all the muscles in my whole body to stay flat, tight, and totally straight in the end it will be much less work for my poor tired arms. Not being straight and rigid makes my arms have to do way more work than they should have to. So stronger arms will help. But in the end better push ups will help more.

Event 2 for the Reebok CrossFit Open has been announced. Almost a perfect workout for me. Almost.. but not. For the girls its:

9 Dead lifts (100lbs / 45kg)
12 Push-ups
15 Box jumps (20")

Dead lifts and box jumps are two of my favorites. Push ups. Ugh. Not so much. I have been considering doing a program to increase push ups and pull ups since the beginning of the year but only started last week. Little bummed I didn’t start sooner. There’s a lesson. If you want to improve something don’t wait if you don’t have to. Another lesson too though. Better late than never.

 
Workout #1 of the Colorado Open is finally behind us. Our team at MBS CrossFit is ranked 3rd of 66 in the Southwest Region so far and 42nd of 786 teams around the world so far. Individually I had a pretty decent start too. Not spectacular but nothing to complain about. I normally do a little better on double-unders and little worse on snatch so I guess it balanced out. I ranked 41st of 618 in the region and 475th of 7108 overall in that one. There are five events remaining so lots of work left to do. Top 30 teams and top 60 individuals in the region move on to the Regional competition. Here are a few of us visiting CrossFit Verve on Saturday:

In the meantime our gym also signed up to do another competition called The Throwdown Series. The 2nd event in that challenge was on Saturday. For the girls it was:

750m row
21 dead lifts at 155
30 ring push ups
15 dead lifts at 155
20 ring push ups
9 dead lifts
10 ring push ups
750m row

I am not sure how are team is ranked yet but I will post it once they have it updated. Individually after both events I am 10th of 73 in that competition so far.

The first workout after a week of sitting on my butt was a little rough on Wednesday. This morning’s was a little better. I tried a muscle up afterward and couldn’t get one so not totally recovered yet I don’t think. Hoping I will be ready for another go at the first Sectionals workout by tomorrow morning. It really won’t matter if I am ready or not. I am doing it. I will put in the best effort I can and whatever happens happens. Man, a little stumble can have a major consequence if you aren’t careful. (Like this guy at about 0:55).

Day left: 30
Weight: 142

After dead lifting a little too much with an already sore back, not working out for a week, and then laying in bed for most of yesterday totally sick to my stomach I realized I had let Goal 1 fall apart totally. After cruising through that first week I let up. And in the past week I reversed the progress made during that first one. Now in order to reach my goal I would need to lose 7 pounds in the next 11 days. I am not willing to do that. There are more health and performance risks than benefits gained. So instead I changed my deadline. I want to reach that goal by the time I do the last workout for Sectionals which gives me almost to the end of April. Just in time for summer! No time to put my head down or have regrets. Just need to get back on it. I got really lucky actually. My back was so sore I decided not to risk injury by redoing the first workout. But they extended this one another week so I still have time. Either tomorrow or Saturday will be my chance to improve my score on Workout 1. Game on.

Days left: 32
Weight: 142

Two things today. First the muscle up. They took a little video and posted it today so here it is. I almost didn’t make it on this one so I got a little excited afterward. (Sorry).

Next thing not so great. My lower back is really stiff and sore. I am signed up to do that first workout tomorrow but at the moment it is looking a little iffy. It isn’t in a full on spasm, just sore. So there is hope. I am wondering how much visualizing it will take to get the soreness to go away by tomorrow. If the workout was today I would have to opt out. So keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow. Any advice is welcome.

Day: 13
Weight: 140 again. grrr.

Our first official workout of the Reebok CrossFit Games Open is going to happen this Saturday. Our gym has been invited to another gym in Denver called CrossFit Verve which should be fun. So far our gym has registered 53 participants. More than 20% of all its members. Why not? Its only $10 bucks for 6 workouts we would probably be doing anyway. Our team is huge. Nice to have all that support. Last night there were about 15 people in class and the coach said “Everyone participating in the competition go to one side and the rest go to the other”. The only ones on the “other” side were a girl trying to get pregnant, a girl with a broken arm, and a guy who just started. Even Todd signed up and he’s only been doing CrossFit now for just over 4 months at about 3 days per week. Everyone is curious to know how they are doing compared to the rest of the CrossFit world. Should be interesting.

Day: 12
Weight: 139

Something amazing happened yesterday. I tried a muscle up for the first time in over a month and I wasn’t even close. I barely got my face above the bottom of the rings. It was a total disaster. Probably one of my worst attempts since last August. So I decided to stop “trying”. I think I have had the mindset that eventually something magical would happen by itself. No more. This time I was going to fight for it until it happened. With a little help from the muscle up experts at the gym I finally got my first muscle up last night! Goal #2 DONE. Next goal: 2 in a row.

Perfect timing too. Today starts 6 weeks of competing in the the CrossFit Open. One workout will be announced per week. Anyone around the world affiliated with CrossFit or not who wants to compete has an opportunity to compare their fitness level to thousands of other competitors worldwide. At the end of 6 weeks they will take the top 60 male and top 60 female performers In each region to compete at Regionals. For the affiliate team competition they will take the top 3 male and 3 female scores from each gym for each workout. The gyms having the best overall scores at the end of 6 weeks will move on as well. 

The winners at Regionals will have an opportunity to compete in an international competition in California for the title of ‘The Fittest on Earth’ and a grand prize of $200,000. It starts today.

Workout 1:
As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of
30 double unders (jump rope)
15 power snatches at 75 for boys and 55 for girls

Wish us luck!

Day: 11
Weight: 139.5

Visualizing is going to take some practice. As a perpetual optimist I didn’t really think it would be very difficult but I found had to make a very conscious effort to stay positive. Automatically thoughts would suddenly pop into my head like ‘What does it mean if I can’t do this as fast as I could last summer?’. But I made an effort each time to immediately imagine myself performing well instead.

It paid off big time. I beat last summer’s time by more than 30 seconds! It left me wondering why I have felt so stagnant the past few months. But it finally dawned on me. Ever been on a boat when you can’t see outside? You and the people around you do not appear to be moving. On a daily basis I measure myself against some really amazing female athletes. A few of us rarely have times that are separated by more than a minute and often just by a few seconds – even after 25 minutes. It is more than likely that we have all been improving at the same rate.

So how do we figure out how much we have really improved overall? Well, during the next six weeks we are going to have the opportunity to look outside the boat… [more on that tomorrow].

Day: 10
Weight: 140
Fran last summer: 4:42
Fran yesterday: 4:10

I have further evidence that visualization works. Yesterday I imagined myself eating far more food for dinner than I really needed and then that is exactly what I did. I ate until I was stuffed. Just to experiment with it, today I am going to spend a few minutes before meal times imagining myself making all the right choices and the receiving the benefits from it during the workout later before I eat. The workout itself today will be another great opportunity to practice this technique. For months I have maintained that I don’t feel quite as strong as I was at the end of last summer. Today is my chance to overcome those negative thoughts and prove it is not true. I did today’s exact workout in 4:42 at the end of last summer while I felt like I was performing at my best.

Fran
21-15-9
Thrusters @ 65
Pull ups
Time last summer: 4:42
Time today: ?

Day: 9
Weigh-in: 140.5