My goal this month is to go to CrossFit at least 5 times a week. It is difficult to subject yourself to something so difficult so frequently but I don’t want to go to California wishing I had done more to prepare. I want to know exactly what I am capable of contributing to the team. And I want that to be more than it is now.
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A funny thing happened yesterday. I went to CrossFit ready to work. The task was to find my 1 rep max weight on front squat. I had no idea how much I could do just once. I figured I would start at 100, add 5 each attempt, and end up around 125. But Tim saw me do one squat at 85 and said “Start with 125 and go up from thereâ€. My response was the same as always. “You’ve got to be kiddingâ€. But then I tried 125 and it wasn’t too bad. So I tried 135. No problem. 140… 145… 150… 155… My max ended up being 165!
It is amazing how much more we are capable of then we believe possible. The tentative response to a challenge is a knee-jerk reaction that needs to be overcome. For me the comments are partially made in jest and I think that is okay – a little joke now and then to ease pressure of impending doom. (See? Heh). But I also need to be careful not to undermine my own performance with underlying self-doubt. I know if I constantly try things that seem impossible it won’t always go the way it did yesterday. But I also know that sometimes it will. That said, I have a new response when Tim tells me to try something that sounds impossible. “Yes Sirâ€.
Here is a video of me doing front squats at 100. I wanted to figure out why I have a problem getting the required depth and fix it. Nothing worse than having to do extra work because reps don’t count.
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Results: SEE RESULTS HERE
To make the final round we needed to be in the top 16 of 30 teams on Friday. Done! But to compete in the 2010 CrossFit Games in California we needed to finish top 8 on Sunday. Before the final event we were barely clinging to 8th place by less than 2 seconds. To find out how we did and see some photos CLICK HERE.
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The event for the finals today has been announced and it looks like I am up to bat. Our time slot is 1:30. There are 16 teams left and only 8 will go on to California. For the final event 2 men and 2 women from our team must complete the following sets in any order as quickly as we can with only one person working at a time. Every person has to do 4 of the following sets and must complete the whole set before the next person goes:
21 thrusters
15 thrusters
9 thrusters21 chest to bar pullups
15 chest to bar pullups
9 chest to bar pullups5 deadlifts plus 10 burpees
5 deadlifts plus 10 burpees
5 deadlifts plus 10 burpees
5 deadlifts plus 10 burpees
5 deadlifts plus 10 burpees6 squat cleans to overhead
6 squat cleans to overhead
6 squat cleans to overhead
6 squat cleans to overhead
6 squat cleans to overhead
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Click Here For Results And Photos
I did not know if I could run on my hurt toe until a few hours before our time slot. I strapped on some $10 cleats from Play It Again Sports and felt okay so… game on.
The team’s goal for the day was to be in the top 16 of 30 to move on to Sunday. Here is how it went with photos and video:
My toe is still a little sensitive but I am considering running the sprints today anyway. When I get to Douglas County Fairgrounds I’ll put on the cleats I picked up from Play It Again Sports for 10 bucks and run a bit and see how it is. The workouts in today competition are:
1. Team Suicides.
2 men and 2 women do a 2000 meter suicide relay on a soccer field
2. Team Snatch.
30 minutes for each team member to complete their heaviest sntach (pull the weight from the ground straight up overhead without a stop in the middle). Bonus for how quick you can get through it.
3. Team Triplet.
2 men and women do 50 muscle ups on the rings. 200 overhead squats 95#/65#. 3000 meters on the rower.
Our teams prediction is that there will be a lot of teams that will run faster than us in that first workout but we will do great in the second two. Lucinda lifting technique is like a professional’s, Rosanne can probably do 100 overhead squats by herself, and Steve and Sid can both do more muscle ups than most people there. So our sprinting is just going to be damage control to try not to let it hurt us too bad. We’ll see.
The worst is probably the tall kitchen garbage bags. I go through at least one a day. With all the other bags I have thrown out I am certain I put over 1000 a year into the landfill. All those bags will still be there when my great great grandchildren are around. Yikes. The more I look into this the more I realize that the eventual answer will have to be composting. My aunt just moved to Toronto and they are way ahead of us. Composting is expected and regulated there. Almost nothing goes into the regular garbage bin. Hmmm……
I buy a lot of fruit and vegetables and all those clear plastic bags go straight in the trash. Reusing them would be a good idea except for some reason it doesn’t appeal to me to put grapes in a bag that used to carry onions. Instead I found some mesh produce bags on Amazon so I am going to order those. I am wondering how strange I am going to feel carrying all of my various bags around King Soopers but in the grand scheme of things I think I can handle it.
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I injured my big toe last night playing volleyball. I made a quick move forward for a ball and it got caught in the sand. I stepped down hard with it bent underneath. It hurt so bad.
This Friday is CrossFit Regionals. My only job for Friday was going to be four sprints, two 100s and two 200s. With a hurt toe, sprinting is about the only thing I can’t do at all. So its possible I did all that hard work just to end up as a spectator on Friday. I am really down. I feel terrible about possibly letting down my team and putting all the pressure on the other two girls. But all I can do is ice the toe and take care of it and hope I make a miraculous recovery in the next couple days. I guess we will see.
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A few years ago I used full sized grocery bags to clean the litter boxes every single day. What a waste! I finally switched to doggie bags made from recycled plastic so that was an improvement. But that is still up to 31 little bags in the trash every month.
Then I thought… What if I just flush it down the toilet? Bad! I was researching flushable cat litter and found out cat feces has toxic chemicals and parasites that cannot be removed by water treatment plants. Organizations like The Sea Otter Alliance actually speak out against flushing that stuff because they are finding sea otters infected with Toxoplasma from cat feces.
I looked into composting (also a goal of mine). Same problem. You don’t want toxic chemicals and parasites in your vegetable garden. To go that route they recommend a separate bin that sits at least 18 months before the compost is used! I will look into that eventually but I am not quite there yet.
I had no idea finding an environmentally friendly way to clean the cat litter would be so complicated. But finally I found out they make biodegradable doggie bags called BioBags. I am going to order some of those and in the meantime reduce cat litter cleanings to 2-3 times a week.
Biodegradable Doggie Bags on Amazon
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