Elizabeth PR

I PR'ed on Elizabeth today. I did it to standard (95#) and shaved 5 mins off my old time at 24:14 today.

The cool thing is the last time I did this, I failed at at least 9 of my cleans. I didn't fail at any of them today.

Last time during the "21's", I could barely do one ring dip at a time, and I failed on a LOT of those.

Today I started each set with 5, then went to 3's, then 2's.

I'll never forget watching my first CrossFit Games in 2009. I remember thinking "if I could learn to clean 95#, that will mean I am getting somewhere".

Wow.

Good thing is, the ante keeps getting raised. At last year's Games, the women were cleaning 135 like it was nothing. I imagine this year it will be 175.

That's cool. I'll keep forging ahead...continually trying to catch up to the best.

Fire and Ice

I attempted to do a scaled version of War Frank on Friday--3 RFTO 25 Muscle Ups, 100 Squats, 35 GHD Sit Ups. Since I don't have a muscle up yet, I was to do 25 Deadhang Pull Ups and 25 Ring Dips per each muscle up.

The first round took me about 25 minutes. Damn. I just don't (yet) have the strength to bang this out, and I am not happy about it.  Sean, one of my coaches just kept staring me down. I knew I'd better do it or die, so I kept pushing on.

I hate being humiliated. I hated that it took me so long. Thank God I'll be doing some serious strength training in the coming months.

I kept envisioning some of my female heroes in my mind. I kept seeing myself one day being strong like them, and I kept going.

Saturday I ran half the Mount Wilson Trail race, since one my clients had never set foot on the treacherous trail, and she's set to run the race next weekend.

Sunday I ran 6.2 miles on a great uphill trail in Griffith Park with some of our peeps who are training for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.  Needless today, when I got home, my body was TOAST.

You know you're in pain when....

I decided to take an ice bath.

After the initial "it's freezing" shock, it wasn't half bad.

Now it's time for some good sleep.

CrossFit Survival got the building we wanted. There are some harried days up ahead, however, as it's a real "fixer upper".

I can't wait to get this place ready.

We've been at the mercy of the parks. As a result, there are simply some things I haven't  been able to teach yet.

Kipping Pull Ups await!

New Era

Since January, I have been privileged to have either a) been training for a potential spot on TCFA's Affiliate Cup Team or b) been training with the team as an alternate.

This has made me so much better as an athlete. Not only did I manage my first two squat thrusters at 95#, I also did 100 OHS at 1/2 bodyweight--not in a row, but in an evening...and I could've gone heavier.

I did multitudes of double-unders, hspu, cleans, squat thrusters, deadlifts (heavy) and Warrior WODS that were heretofore unfathomable to me.

I am beginning to glimpse what I am capable of, and I like it.

It's time to hit it even harder, as I am ready to take my performance to the next level. I also uncovered many weaknesses. It is time to conquer those.

Additionally, I celebrated one year of instructing CrossFit last week. My affiliate, CrossFit Survival, is preparing to move from the park to an indoor facility. My clients are getting stronger, fitter, faster. I am improving as a Coach.

"Leap and the Net Will Appear".

Damned straight.

Doin' Whatever it Takes

Today my coach said, "Good" twice to me--once during my front squat reps and once when I was speeding through my last set of 10 reps of Grace at 55% my 1RM (60#).

Wow.

I have waited 19 months for this.

You see, my coach doesn't say "good" unless it IS good.

Holy Fucking Wow. I am finally earning this.

Halleujah it feels good.

I don't take it for granted...no way. I've done that before.

You see, towards October of last year I sort of went adrift--forgot why I was in CrossFit in the first place, took my "status" in our box for granted. I got lazy.

My PR's still came, but they took FOREVER.

My "verve" was gone.

However, thank the gods it is BACK!

I am 45 and one of the top women in my box. Each day I fight to be better than the day before. Each day I KNOW why I CrossFit.

I CrossFit b/c I am infatuated with being strong.
I CrossFit b/c the confidence I have gained is worth more than all the money I've ever paid for any other sort of self-help in my life.
I CrossFit b/c now I have a driving purpose.
I CrossFit b/c I can.

Mostly I CrossFit so I can pass it on to those around me...and now they too love to CrossFit.

Getting Stronger Every Day

Last week I set out to break my old Shoulder Press PR of 75 lbs. Although I managed 3 reps at 75, I just couldn't get 80 lbs over my head--despite 3 attempts.

Yesterday, I tried again. I easily did 5 reps of 75 to warm up. And indeed, 80 lbs went up like cake!

So I tried 85, but to no avail.

Let's try again next week!

Doing 25 push ups daily is really making my shoulders and arms so much stronger.

On another note, I have put on over 6 lbs!!!

I followed Paleo/Zone pretty diligently for over a year. I did so well at it, that I became too thin! My energy started to suck. I was stressed out a lot. Add to that the fact that I was averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.5 hrs of sleep a night, and I knew I wasn't doing as well as I should be.

Now I eat like a horse! I'm still Paleo in Zone proportions, but I eat between 18-20 blocks of food a day AND I drink 1/2 gallon of grass-fed raw milk daily.

I LOVE MILK!

I have to say that changing that one thing has made a huge difference on many levels.

1. I have gained almost 6 pounds in just over a month.
2. I have gotten much stronger proportionately during that time period.
3. I have WAY more energy than before.
4. My skin feels like silk.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

You Gotta Have Friends

God I love my friends. Recently a group of 3 of us women (2 of my awesome clients--Jenny and Jacque and me) all took up a challenge designed to help each other out.

Jenny's highly allergic to gluten, but craves CAKE!

Jacque needs to watch for drinking too many beers.

I also wanted to stay sober for an extended period of time, plus I wanted to do 25 CTD push ups daily and ensure I get an average of at least 6 hours sleep per night--a huge improvement over before. I also added to my goals ZERO non-grass fed milk, as I am highly allergic and sick of putting myself in gastro-intestinal hell out of laziness due to Starbuck's.

Anyhow, if any of us screw's up, we have to do 5 minutes of burpees (straight) per transgression.

Burpees are a terrific penalty, I find to deter one from doing something they shouldn't.

And the cool thing is, when you finally have to pay your penalty, at least you are getting something incredibly beneficial as a result--despite the discomfort of having to do them!

Yesterday, I had accumulated 20 minutes of penalties (due to not remembering to do my push-ups), and Jacque had accumulated the same due to drinking 4 beers.

So via texting, we started and stopped one another and got the work done at our respective homes.

I was sweating up a storm!

Needless to say, I accomplished 200 burpees with all but 20 including CTD push ups.

So we're all winning.

Jenny's only cheated once--keeping her asthma under control.
Jacque's cheated a few times, but is doing much much better than she was.
I've missed a few days of 25 CTD push ups, managed to stay sober almost 30 days and have been averaging almost 7 hours of sleep per night. I've also avoided drinking icky grain fed milk and including the burpee penalties, I'm getting stronger at something I suck at!

Cindy PR

I did 16 Rounds of Cindy today. Good news. Last time I did it I was only 10 squats short of 16, so anything less today than that would've sucked.

I moved back in with my longtime boyfriend of 8 years today, Dan. Finally!!! It feels good to be home.