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

Yesterday at CrossFit we did an experiment. We ran one mile. Then we spent time visualizing running another mile. And then we actually ran another mile. The goal was to focus positive energy towards better performance. It is easy to defeat yourself with negative thinking before you start so why shouldn’t the opposite be true? My first mile took 9 minutes. My second took 7:25. There are lots of reasons. The main one is that I tried harder. But the fact is that I only tried harder because I first decided to. Before the first mile I was thinking about how tired I was and how much more work we left had to do. Before the second mile I totally forgot about my aching legs, the workout planned for later, the steep hill climb. I was only thinking about running as fast as I could. Not hard to imagine how the second mile was so much faster. Doing that regularly seems like something that could make a big difference with minimal effort. Totally worth a try this week.

Day: 8
Weigh-in: 139.5

Day: 7
Weigh-in: 139.5

Back under 140. Yes! Just need to stay consistent to cut out that last 5 or so.

My secondary fitness goal of getting a muscle up this month is well under way. The plan is to focus on gaining a little more strength in my arms. So far that is being taken care of by the workouts at MBS CrossFit. This week I have done 170 kipping pull ups, 80 push ups, 50 ring dips, and lifted almost 15,000 pounds over my head. On Tuesday my arms were so sore I could barely lift them up. Yesterday I went past soreness into total failure. Today I don’t even know anymore. We are going again in a couple hours though so I guess we’ll find out.

One thing I haven’t done in a month or so is to actually attempt a muscle up. That might eventually be a good idea. While it is fun preparing to reach a goal it would be easy to get stuck in that state for another 6 months. Have to remember to keep trying them regularly no matter how frustrating it is certain to be.

Day: 5
Weigh-in: 140.5

I updated WordPress yesterday and my theme was hosed. It is no longer compatible. Not a bad thing, I guess. That old theme served me well for over a year but I suppose it is time for a change. I am using this for now until I have a chance to look around for others. I may try a few different ones over the next couple weeks and solicit some feedback.

Day: 4
Weigh-in: 141

The first 5 pounds is already almost gone. That is pretty normal when you have been eating as much as I was. The first few days is the easy part. The hard part is continuing to press on when the weight stops melting off so easily and my resolve starts to fade. I am hoping that not depriving myself will make it easier. In fact, my friends in Paleo would probably be appalled with what I have been eating on this ‘diet’ so far. Let’s find out. Here is what I ate yesterday:

Leftover pizza is not part of a health food diet. But I have another goal in mind to make due with what I have available. And what I happen to have available at the moment is leftover pizza from that party. Luckily it is homemade so it isn’t overly greasy or covered in 2 inches of cheese and pepperoni or anything. And once it is gone I can replace it with something higher in protein. Time to defrost the chili!

Only Day 4 and I already feel sooo much better. My energy level is way up. Too much actually. I need an outlet. Time to go for a run!