My little bit extra yesterday was box jumps. In our workouts we typically use a 20” box and which has posed no trouble for me. I usually look forward to them. But during one of our team workouts this past weekend we were required to use a 24” box and I was unpleasantly surprised how much the added height affected me. Here is a demonstration by me of how never to do a box jump:

I barely even made it up there. As it turned out the 20” box had gotten so routine that I had pretty much stopped using my arms and was just bounding with my ankles and calves which did not work at all on the higher box. I wasn’t jumping upright either. Look how I landed on the box completely hunched over. Total mess. Way more work than if I had just stayed upright and swung my arms a little. So yesterday’s addition to the normal class was a few sets of 10 box jumps on the 24” box. The lesson here is that I need to be careful not to focus so much on my weaknesses that I neglect my strengths. Like all things I guess it is about finding a balance.

At the games, Rich Froning, Elizabeth and my pick from the first individual workout, was amazing all weekend but ended up 2nd place instead of 1st because he could only climb a rope with brute force arm strength instead of efficient technique. By the time he had suffered so many difficult workouts there was no way he could climb that 30 foot rope nine times with just his arms though he tried and tried. The fact that he could do it as many times as he did with only his arms was still freakishly superhuman but it must have been pretty frustrating knowing that if he knew the proper technique he would have finished them all. Watching this happen I made a decision that every day after class I would spend just a little bit of extra time on something that needs work.

So Tuesday I climbed the rope in our gym for the first time. I think I now have the placement of the rope right and I can let go and grip back on pretty well but the lock with my feet is still not quite right. It is a little loose for some reason. Also I need to figure out how to do it with out getting painful rope burns.

Yesterday I worked a little on some light overhead squats. My arms still bend when the weight feels a little heavier which is the opposite of what they should do. Need to get them to lock out completely. I also couldn’t resist the urge to try to do muscle ups on the rings a few times. Getting better but still a no go. Sid and Tim are going to help me get that one figured out over the next couple weeks.

In the evening Todd and our neighbor Joe and I tooled around Lafayette on our mountain bikes. It was Todd’s maiden voyage on his new bike. It was really nice riding up and down the hills with those great views of the mountains. We also made a new little friend along the way. Highly enjoyable.

Back from the CrossFit Games and I will have pictures to post soon. It has taken a couple days to recover from all the excitement. We had a total blast and performed well. It was very motivating to watch so many freakishly amazing athletes compete against each other. Now that I am home it is time to start training for the next event at the end of August. Lots of work to do if I want to avoid getting my butt completely kicked by all the talented Colorado women.

I played volleyball last night and it was pretty fun except for a minor distraction in the last match. One of the guys on the other team was throwing complete hissy fits every time things didn’t go his way. Slamming the ball into the ground, yelling at himself, dropping to his knees like the world was coming to an end. Amusing but also annoying. At one point a guy on my team smashed a ball and that guy yelled out ‘I HAD THAT!’ in a fit of rage. He was absolutely nowhere near the ball and if he had been it probably would have broken his face.

At the CrossFit Games this weekend I noticed how even at the top levels people seem to be really good sports. Some of these people trained all year long for this event and ended up having equipment failure in the middle of their workouts. Instead of having a breakdown and crying about it they remained calm and did what they needed to do to finish. Athletes supported each other and there was a spirit of being in it together that existed even between competitors. They take this sport very seriously… but not TOO seriously. When you do something like CrossFit you should ultimately do it because you enjoy it and not because it totally defines your worth as a human being. It makes it much easier to take challenges in stride – a better way to live life in general, in my opinion.

More on what the games were like tomorrow…

Days left to CrossFit Games: 2

Packing today. Leaving tomorrow. I don’t feel ready at all. I wish I had another month to train. In the end though, it is really just another workout, right?  More than one if things go well. I have a lot of work to get done today still before I will be ready to go. Better get at it.

Days to CrossFit Games: 4

Saturday night I went over to my sister’s along with 35 people or so. My stepmom’s entire family, a few from my mom’s family, and my brother-in-law’s parents bombarded her house for several hours. It was my 4th barbecue in less than 2 weeks. Luckily Kim spared us the burgers and fed us Mexican food instead. Mmmm. This photo is my stepmom Gayle’s four kids and their kids plus my mom’s mom on the lower left and my sister and I over there on the right with our boys. Yesterday Todd’s family came over to watch the World Cup finals. We grilled burgers. Hahaha. That makes the 5th! Anyway, Todd and his sister were pretty elite soccer players and I will pretty much watch the finals of any sporting event. But that wasn’t soccer as much as it was 2 hours of sprinting with brief stints of Tae Kwon Do. And to demonstrate the flying chest kick…

On the bright side, none of the players from Spain had to fake any of their injuries. ‘Your Kung Fu is strong, Grasshopper, but not strong enough’. Hiyeee ya!’

Days left to CrossFit Games: 5

The workout yesterday was not a long grueling one and I was not particularly tired doing it, not something I have said about any CrossFit workout. Yet it was the closest I have been to not finishing a workout at all.

The workout:
4 rounds for time:
3 snatches
150m run
7 kipping pull ups

I was not sure what weight to use for the snatches. At Regionals the individual girls had to do several sets of 10 snatches at 95#. For one girl who looked about 100lbs herself, 95# was her max. She could barely even handle the first one. But she did another rep. And then another. And pretty soon the whole crowd was cheering as she battled each rep to finally complete the workout just barely under the allotted time. Since we only had to do 3 reps at a time and my max is around 90# I was inspired to try it. Ugh! The first two went up (barely) but I could not get myself under the bar on that third rep! Each time it took several attempts and on the third round I could not get the last rep at all. I had to remove 5 pounds from the bar just to finish the workout. Very disappointing.

My trainer wants me try to compete with the individuals at the Colorado Open at the end of August. If the workouts are just right for me I have the potential to finish pretty well. Like if we do 21, 15, 9 deadlifts at 155# and double-unders like we did this week I would kick butt. That workout only took me 3:30. Unfortunately my weaknesses are so bad that if just one of them tossed in the mix I could go from great performance to not being able to finish a workout at all.

Oh well. Nothing ventured nothing gained, I suppose. The “demotivator” in the picture cracks me up but I do have a real answer to it. Your best is only your “best” on a given day. So when your best is not good enough you always have the option to set out to make it better than it was on that day. I feel really determined to tackle my weaknesses (in CrossFit but also in life in general). And here they are:

1.  Snatch – Most I can handle in a workout is about 85#.
2.  Overhead Squat – Most I can handle as a 1 rep max is about 85#.
3.  Chest To Bar Kipping Pull Ups – After 3 reps my chest no longer touches.
4.  Handstand Push Ups – I cannot touch my head to the ground and get back up.
5.  Muscle Ups / Dips – I cannot do a muscle up at all and can barely do 2 dips on the rings.

To a lesser degree but still needing help:
1.  Push Ups / Burpees – Both have improved dramatically yet I am still about half as capable as the other two girls on my team.
2.  Clean and jerk – I can get by but its not pretty.
3.  Diet – Obviously better than it has been in the past but my discipline but still needs serious work.

In another workout this week we did 3 rounds of max rep push ups (chest must touch the ground). I did 22, 17, and 12 for a total of 51. Rosanne did 42 on just her first round! I think her total was close to 100. Then there is Sean who did 100 on each of his first two rounds and 80 on his third. That must have taken forever. I am convinced he only decided not to finish all 100 in the last round because he got bored.

Sigh. I have a lot of work to do.

Days left to CrossFit Games: 6

Sorry I have not been keeping up to date with the blog recently. I have spent most days in the garden, working, running errands, and getting ready for the Games in California next week.

I have been thinking a lot about how this year is going so far. It seems to be going great. I set out to accomplish a great deal and I am well on my way. But much of the focus for the first six month has been on losing weight and getting fit which transitioned into a focus almost exclusively on performing well at CrossFit for these competitions. On one hand it is a great thing to decide what you want in life and then dedicate time and effort to achieve what you set out to achieve. But in the grander scheme of life all of my fitness efforts will only be a true success if they are part of the bigger set of accomplishments as opposed to being the thing that distracts me from the rest. I have been so concentrated on the competitions that I am having trouble visualizing the overall set of resolutions and the direction I want them to take me in.

After thinking about it this week I have decided it is okay for now. I still 6 months of this year to get this stuff figured out. Next weekend will be a major milestone and once it is finished I can step back and take a look at the bigger picture and make sure I am not losing my way.

Days left to CrossFit Games: 12

We have been training hard. A week ago on Saturday the team went to Front Range CrossFit for a 2nd practice with other Colorado teams. 50 snatches (115# for girls), 50 hand stand push ups, 50 muscle ups on the rings, plus everyone had to row 2 x 500 meter sprints. I cannot do hand stand push ups or muscle ups so I did the only thing I could, the heavy lifting. Add a couple 500 meter sprints and my legs were so tired they went numb. After that we raced boys against girls flipping huge tractor tires through the parking lot. The girls did very well but the boys beat us even with their heavier tire. Ours was 300 and I think theirs was 500.The next day I decided to go on a hike with Todd and my cousin Andrea. It started out as a nice leisurely 2 mile hike up to Lake Isabelle just 45 minutes from Boulder. But we decided to continue on to see if we could reach Pawnee Pass another 2.25 miles past the lake. Much of the trail was covered in snow and when we reached a field of boulders we lost the trail altogether. After 2 hours of bouldering up the side of the mountain and we got trapped beneath a steep and expansive snow field that we could not traverse. The snow gave out completely with each step and the giant boulders beneath were too unstable. We came within 100 meters of the top of the pass and had to turn back. Had we stayed on the trail it would have been an easy walk for us. Other than that it was a beautiful hike.  See more pics: Hike to Pawnee Pass.Yesterday, inspired by our tire flipping at Front Range, our trusted leader came up with his own much worse workout for us. Teams of 4-5 had to flip 5 tires of sizes ranging from 150 lbs to 800 lbs across the parking lot and then stack them all on top of each other. Then we had to carry nine bags full of sand ranging from 50 lbs to 135 lbs the rest of the way around our very long building. All for time, of course. And naturally the people going to the Games, including myself, were on the team of only 4. It took 3 people just to flip the 800 lb tire. That thing was HEAVY and it was slow going. We definitely could have used another person. We tried to make up for it by carrying multiple sandbags at once. Time: 16:00.As if that wasn’t enough, after the workout a new-ish crossfitter fresh out of the Navy named Sean suggested that a 17 year old soccer player named Ben and I join him for a hike up Bear Peak. Ours was nothing like a leisurely hike. Over the course of the hike the three of us somehow developed an unspoken agreement to push through the 7 mile loop as fast as possible (except for our stop at the summit). We went up the steep side gaining 2400 feet of elevation in well under 2 hours and then ran down the back side as fast as we could manage. We missed a turn and ran further down the mountain than necessary so after all that we had to bushwhack up a steep slope to get back to our cars. Estimated time to complete the hike is 5-7 hours. Our time including our half hour summit and our accidental detour was 3 hrs 30 minutes. My legs have never been so close to complete failure. Totally worth it. What a gorgeous run! The wildflowers are beautiful and the view from the top is outstanding.

Days left to CrossFit Games: 15

My stepmom’s son and his family flew in from Australia to spend a month here. I had the pleasure of meeting them at a barbecue at my dad’s house last Thursday. After feeling so unfocused I still managed to stick to the health food diet that night! The kids, on the other hand, were following a different diet. They played a game where they stood under the deck and caught sundae ingredients in their mouths…

The first victim:

The drop:

The The catch:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

What a riot!

Days left to CrossFit Games: 16

I was feeling a bit unfocused two weekends ago and decided to spend the early mornings on the patio and in the garden instead of on my laptop writing about my day. My weekend break from blogging quickly turned into 10 days. I feel much better now. I think I can spend a little time in the morning doing both. So much to catch up on…

Today’s workout:

500m row for time
Time: 1:55

Squat
Reps  5  5  3  3  1  1  1
1 rep max: 230#