CrossFit ….. Day 4

I’m currently in a bit of a rut and totally disenchanted with the swim, bike & run.  It’s almost impossible to make time to get to the pool; I’m averaging about 30 minutes one time a week, which is inadequate.  I get one bike day each week, which is inadequate.  Plus, my body is a bit damaged and the run isn’t going well.  In fact, I haven’t ran long in 3 weeks, and that’s definitely inadequate.  OUCH.  Let’s just keep pretending that I am not facing down the Racine 70.3 in 2 weeks and the Chicago Marathon in 14 weeks.  Yep, let’s just keep pretending.

It's not denial

So basically at a point, when all the things that I “normally” really enjoy aren’t coming together, it’s nice to have something different to focus upon while I try to decide if I should bail on some of my scheduled events.

The 4th of July brought my 4th CrossFit workout.  Fun but I was still sore from Tuesday’s 1/2 Murph.  Smile   We started off with “Death by 10 meters”.  This workout starts easy enough, run one 10 meter sprint over the course of 1 minute.  Then run two 10 meter sprints in 1 minute.  Each minute then rolls right into the next adding another 10 meter interval.  Lots of waiting time at the beginning, no rest at all toward the end as you are attempting to pump off 13, 14 & 15 ten meters sprints in the minute before it rolls to the next.  I just missed the 15th interval only making 14.  So I “died” at 14+14.  Not an easy workout for me because my “run fast” left me a while back and it’s difficult for me to get any lift out of my hamstring to “move it” quickly. 

After “Death by 10 meters” killed all of us, we were ready to crawl home but apparently that was just the warm-up.    We then went to two 6 minute rotations.  As many rounds as possible within the 6 minute time frame.

First 6 minute set:  10 Ball Slams, 10 Ring Rows, & 10 Push-Ups (reapeat as many times as possible) – This one about killed me.  Even the Ring Rows which seemed easy last time were very tough.  Sore arms, sore pecks, sore TTF.  I was very slow and complained and wanted to go home

Second 6 minute set:  10 Box Jumps, 10 Sit-Ups, 1 Plate Carry (carry a 25 lb plate 100 meters) – This set was so much easier for me and I actually enjoyed it.  The plate carry was my favorite.  It was hysterical to see the various ways that people carried their plates.  These are a few pics from google images but it was the same for us.  Some held the plate high over their heads, some under their arm and I carried mine out in front like a load of boxes.

Plate-Carry       Plate-Carry 2    Plate-Carry 3

More fun times at CrossFit.  Stay tuned for this week’s fun & games!

** Attempting to Get Strong ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **

CrossFit ….. Day 1

If you follow me on Facebook & Twitter then you know that I’ve been terrified brimming with excitement to start something new.  CrossFit.  It’s no secret that I want to get strong.  That I need to get strong.  That my body has been breaking down over the last year or so because it can’t keep up with the demands of what I ask of it each and every week.  So I NEED strength to carry me thru when my body just isn’t feeling quite up to the task.

image

I’ve tried to do things at home.  But getting out the weights is dangerous because my lil man then feels the need to also prove his strength.  Do it when he sleeps, right?  Wrong.  Lil man doesn’t sleep much cuz he’s my Mini Me

I would have taken a class at a local gym but with my lil man schedule being so crazy between work, “the commute”, kids, family, training & Aby’s extracurriculars  …… well, they aren’t open enough hours in the day.  I don’t have a traditional life and don’t fit into a traditional mold so I couldn’t get my ass to attend any classes at this point in my life.

Hmmmm…… what to do?  Continue to be weak and dream of being strong?  Sounds good!  Maybe I’ll wake up “strong” one morning, that sounds way easier.   Well, I’ve been waiting for years and that isn’t working.  Then, I started talking with a few friends and it seemed that many others were having a similar problem, wanting to get strong but lacking the time to make it happen.  So, I went out on a limb and asked a local CrossFit instructor if he wanted to open an early morning CrossFit class for us.   And he said yes.  Crap.  I thought he would tell me to shove it.  The fear seeped in immediately for all of us.  We were concerned we couldn’t do it.  I was concerned that he was going to try to kill us and “make an example” out of us by showing us how weak we were even though we were all runners cuz that’s how my one and only personal training session went back in 2008.  Yep, we were scared.  Like really scared.  And I was amazed that with all that fear floating around 19 people managed to show up for a 5 am CrossFit session.

CrossFit_Day 1

Wow, proud to know these brave souls!  And the workout was good, a nice intro to CrossFit without killing us.  I know that it was probably one of the “easy” sessions but I’m glad that he didn’t scare everyone away because I don’t want to be the only one who shows up for Session #2! 

Our first workout, WOD (Workout Of the Day) is below.

20 Minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) Teams

3 person teams – First team member completes a full round before 2nd person starts, 2nd person completes a full round before 3rd person starts.  Repeat rounds, rotating thru team as many times as possible.

  • 10 Ring Rows

Ring Rows

  • 10 Pushups
  • 10 Ball Slams

ball slams

  • 100  meter sprint

We had so much fun.  The group had so much energy.  The team concept really helped push us faster than we may have otherwise done had we been doing the workout “solo”.  It was good!  My group got thru 11 rounds in the 20 minutes.  Today, I feel slightly sore in my chest and shoulders but it’s manageable.  I was still able to swim last night.  The Tuesday WOD didn’t destroy me.  This means, I’ll go back for the Thursday WOD.  Cross your fingers for us!  We are all CrossFit “newbies” who are just looking to get strong!

** Trying New Things ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **