Competitions:

Events I've Completed:

Run for Rescue - 4/30/11 - 5k - 29:05 (finished 2nd in my age)
Ojai to Ocean - 6/5/11 - Half Marathon - 1:56:37 (Ran with Lisa!)
Megan Savage Memorial - 9/24/11 - 5k - 31:16 (Ran with Bill!)
Beach Derby 10k - 11/6/11 - 56:40 (Ran with Nikki!)
RnRLV - 12/4/11 - Half Marathon 2:18 (Ran with Nikki!) Got sick by race end. Sick three days.
Surf City - 2/5/12 - Half Marathon - 1:55:02 (PR) Ran with Lisa and Sarah
Battle of the Boxes-2/23/13-5:04 Mini Helen-8th place overall team finish
Crossfit Open 13.1-131
Crossfit Open 13.2-232
Crossfit Open 13.3-183
Crossfit Open 13.4-54
Crossfit Open 13.5-49
Battle of the Boxes: Unknown Edition- 3rd place finish!

Upcoming:

Crossfit Open 2014!





This is my before photo. I weighed 15 pounds more, was exhausted all of the time and wasn't getting better at crossfit, running or life. It was time for a change.

My before photo

My before photo

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Crossfit and traveling

I am traveling on vacation with my daughters this week.  We won a week in Scottsdale at my daughters school fundraiser.  Before leaving I had been dying for a break from crossfit.  I'd started doing the competitor workouts the past two or three weeks and my body was paying for it.  I had mentioned that I was really looking forward to a week off to allow for some recovery, both physically and mentally.

So why was it when we arrived Sunday evening I went online looking for local boxes?  I think it had to do with a six hour car ride.  I needed to MOVE my body.  Plus I love hitting crossfit affiliates while I'm away from home.  It's fun to see what they do the same and what they do differently.  Plus who needs rest?

Monday morning I woke up bright and early to hit the 7:30 WOD.  First thing I realized was that I wasn't at home and couldn't make my breakfast.  Hmm what to do?  I headed to Starbucks and got a Cafe Americano and the protein pack.  Ready to roll I headed to Crossfit 480.  The facility was very clean.  And all glass doors surrounding the place.  I really liked the place.  The newbies were friendly.  The other members didn't have much to say.  The head trainer seemed a bit put off that I was there.  I asked him about the games.  He said he isn't into that.  They didn't send anyone.  He said that since they've opened competition up to the internet, he has no interest.  He didn't ask about my experience or where I come from.  I thought that was odd.  The warm up was good, although mostly stretching and mobility.  Nothing really to get you ready for the WOD.  Then we did a strength of 3x3 for partial power cleans, only went to the shrug.  The WOD was 200m run, 12 dips, 6 thrusters (95#rx'd), 250m row, 12 dips, 6 thrusters for two rounds.  I've never done that many dips in my entire life and the thrusters at 95# got quite heavy.  I went 15:44 rx'd.  I was the last one done, but was the only girl that did it prescribed.   It was $15 for a drop in, which was reasonable.  It was a good workout and I'd initially thought I'd go back there.

The next day at breakfast, two people wearing crossfit t-shirts happened to sit behind us.  I couldn't resist and had to ask where they workout.  They said they owned a box further away but that Crossfit Magna was a great box and I should consider it.  That was one of the other places I'd seen online.  I didn't go there because they didn't have any morning WOD's.  I decided to suck it up and go to the 4PM class.  I showed up and was immediately greeted by a friendly member.  She introduced me to Coach Jenn who gave me the waiver.  I asked her about the rate for drop ins and she referred me to Brian.  He asked where I was from, how long I'd crossfitted and what affiliate I go to.  He knew Jeremy and told me I could have one class for free or the week for $15.  Now that's an awesome deal!  The WOD was tough.  There was a 5 min warm up of: 100 doubles, 10 arm circles, 20 mountain climbers and 30 sit ups.  The next part was a gymnastics emom.  It was 20 minutes of 5 strict pull ups, and 5 kipping dips.  I got through 14 rounds before I decided to get a red band for the pull ups.  At that point I did 2 strict and 3 on the band.  I somehow was able to get through all of the dips.  Then we were on to the main WOD.  That was a 15 minute amrap of 5 deadlifts (95#rx'd), 10 push ups and 5 squats.  I got 11+8 rounds.  It was a great workout and all of the people there were very friendly.  It was a very small box, but after being at both I would go back to Crossfit Magna anytime.

All in all, I'm glad I was able to get two days in, while still taking time off to recover.  And my girls didn't feel like I ditched them while on vacation.  Win!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Grace and dinner

I know weird title for a post.  But that's kinda what my day consisted of.  My daughter had an orthodontist appointment this morning and then drove herself to Starbucks and school (which took way longer than if I'd have driven).  So I had to go to crossfit at 11:00.

Our WOD today was Grace.  I'd done it a few months ago, so I knew I had to get it done in about 5 minutes.  Not great, but a goal nonetheless.  Oh first the description:

Grace:  30 clean and jerks at 95#

Today I got 4:38, victory!  It was a 1 min, 19 sec PR!!  I'll take it.

After finishing Grace we had a max effort pull ups.  I got 15 on that.  I probably should've tried for more, but my hands were pinching and I didn't want to  mess them up for the rest of the week.


Then I had to run a few errands and get to Costco.  I started plotting dinner while I was driving and decided to go with bacon wrapped filets.  I saw the recipe on Food Network and have to say they were the best steaks I'd ever made so I went with them again.  I had great intentions of taking a photo, but everyone was starving and I forgot.  But they were just as delicious this time around  If you'd like to give them a try the recipe is here.  I will warn you if you're following a traditional low fat diet, they aren't for you.  If however you are paleo, then go for it!  


We had those with some roasted brussel sprouts and sweet potato chips.  And with the leftover bacon, I made bacon wrapped dates for dessert.  Yep it was a good day!


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The final week of the Open

I think by week the of the Open I was kind of over it.  I liked how we did it at our box last year better, just my personal preference.  Last year, I didn't sign up for the Open because it was supposed to be something that was to be done on the weekends. With three kids, I've never been able to go on weekends.  But they ended up doing the workout as the WOD every Thursday beginning the second week.  Just so happened, that I go on Thursdays.  So while I wasn't sad to miss 12.1 (7 minutes of burpees), it was fun to hit all of the other workouts.


So this year when it was time to begin signing up for the Open, I asked if it would be run the same as last year and they said yes.  So I signed up.  As it turned out, they decided to do the big Open "party"on Saturdays.  They also gave the option of Wed or Thurs evenings at 7 or 8 PM.  But again with 3 kids, going in the evening isn't very feasible.  They have been awesome and allowed me to hit the Open workout every Thursday during my usual class.  And most days, there's been at least one other person to hit it with me.  I don't really mind doing it alone or in a small group, but it is weird doing it early when no one else has hit it yet.  I don't have any tips or even target numbers to hit.

Week 3 was a repeat, so I felt like I went into that thinking it'd be easier than it was.  I couldn't believe how sore my quads were!  For three days!  And I didn't do much better than last year, which surprised me.  Last year I'd made it through Karen and then got 5 doubles.  This year I got 33 doubles.  But I'd thought I'd make it through all of them.  My doubles are good and I had two minutes left.  But my feet were numb and my arms were toast.  Good lesson there!

As for week 4, I felt good that day but of course as others were posting higher scores as the week progressed, I second guessed whether I could have done better.  I did almost exactly what I thought I would with 54 reps, but I know I could've finished those last 6 toes to bar.  My form was just sloppy on that last round.  I should've taken a second before starting and got myself together.

The good news is that I've been staying after class everyday to work on new things.  I'd been working on my dips, but have moved on to hspu's and bar muscle ups.  I can now string 3 good hspu's and can get two muscle ups with a band.  I'm at the red & purple band and hope to be off of the bands soon.  Learning new things and getting better at old things is going to be my focus now.  I've enjoyed the Open, but have never crossfitted for the competition.  I enjoy competing, but I think I lose focus of the bigger picture.  Which is to say since last September, I've lost 24 pounds and fit into the smallest size clothing I've ever fit into.  In fact, here's a photo of the shorts I just bought two pairs of.  Mostly because I was able to wear a size small!!

So yeah I've had fun doing the Open, I might even do it again next year.  But I'm kinda over it and looking forward to not worrying about what it'll be or when I'll do it.  What are your thoughts about the Open? 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

My take on Crossfit Open 13.2

I had to hit the Open's 13.2 today.  Not optimal, but better than not getting it in at all.  I thought I was going to have to go it alone because everyone else will be doing it on Saturday at our box.  But thankfully there was one other person who needed to get it done today.  So Dustin and I were going to go while everyone else did the regular WOD.

Since there was only two trainers there, one had to run the regular class and the other had to count for us.  That meant Dustin and I couldn't go together.  He volunteered to go first and since I'd eaten breakfast only 30 minutes before I decided that would help me too.  Here's what the workout looked like:


I knew this would be a cardio test more than anything.  So I'd thought I'd jump all of the 1st round of box jumps, step the second round, jump the third and so on.  But during the first round, Jake kept no repping me. He told me I was opening all the way up on my jump down and that it needed to be while I was still on top of the box.  So then I started to jump up, step down.  That way I knew I'd get each rep. But that felt weird.  So for the remaining rounds, I only did step ups, step downs.  I felt like it was the old step aerobics days!  But overall I think it was a good strategy.  I never stopped.  I was able to transition without taking a break and keep moving even if it wasn't the fastest pace.

Then this afternoon a friend sent me a message that I'm in first place for my age group in our region & 35th worldwide!  While I know this won't last I had to take a screenshot of it, because it feels good!  I honestly have no illusions of making it anywhere near the top, but it's sure fun to pretend for a minute or two!  I really liked this workout a lot better than 13.1.

Those of you that have done it, which did you like better or think you preformed better at?


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Crossfit Open 13.1

So last year I didn't compete in the Open.  I had been crossfitting for about a year and a half, but didn't feel strong enough to compete.  In the end, I ended up doing every workout except 12.1 anyway because our box did the open workout as the WOD each Thursday.  And trust me, I wasn't too upset about missing 7 minutes of burpees.

Fast forward to this year.  I decided that supporting my box was important and for $20 it would be fun to see where I ended up.  So when the 13.1 was announced I almost died to see my two least favorite moves together in one workout!

I was hoping that since they'd added a Masters Women's bracket for 40-44, that I'd get a little break.  But alas no luck.  Same workout as those dang fit 20 year olds!  Here it is in case you haven't seen it:



My max snatch was a 2 rep lift at 75 pounds and I suck at burpees.  So I didn't go into this workout with much confidence.  I ended up doing burpees step ups after watching other heats go before me.  It looked like it saved a lot of endurance as well as leg fatigue.  Turns out it was the right choice for me.  My problem was the 75# snatches.  They got in my head because I knew it was my previous max.  So I took them way too slow.  I did singles and took way too much time in between.  I ended with a 131 ,but was disappointed because I know I could've pushed harder and had more time to finish the burpees.  My tie break time (the time you completed your last full round of snatches) was 16:54.  6 seconds to get to my bar and complete one burpee.  

I think my strategy for next week will be to hit the workout on Thursday and then if I feel like I need to try again I'll still have Sunday.  Because I don't think I could do back to back days.  One of the benefits of the young that I don't have, is recovery time.

Overall I'm glad I'm signed up this year and am really having fun watching our beastly athletes get great finishes.  What was your finish, and how did you feel about it? 

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Banana Blueberry Muffins


Here's a recipe that was passed on to me from Nick Robles at Crossfit Kinnick.  They are about 1 block and delicious!  I omitted the vanilla to be WLC compliant.  I threw all of the ingredients into our Vitamix and just poured the mix into the cupcake liners.  



Banana Blueberry Muffins

2 normal sized ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 eggs
1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 scoop vanilla protein powder 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup blueberries (frozen)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease with coconut oil.
Add to a medium bowl the bananas, vanilla extract, applesauce, and eggs and using a hand mixer mix the ingredients together—I use a hand held blender to really chop up the bananas. 

In a small bowl whisk together dry ingredients (coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, protein powder, and salt). 

Add dry ingredients to the banana mixture and using hand mixer combine until well incorporated—had to switch to mixer because blender didn’t work as it was a little too thick.  Then add melted coconut oil and mix again until combined—if you don’t melt the coconut oil, it forms little chunks in your batter.  

Stir in frozen blueberries making sure not to break them up (mush) too much in the batter—frozen ones don’t mush.

Scoop the batter evenly into muffin pan (I usually get about 10 muffins).  These muffins don’t rise.  As such, how you place them in the pan is how they turn out.

Place muffin pan in preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown—sometimes the middles of the tops don’t look cooked, but they are.  You can also use a toothpick to make sure the center is cooked.

Friday, March 1, 2013

WLC Round Two

Today marks the end of the second week of the second round of the WLC (Whole Life Challenge).  It basically is a challenge among crossfit boxes.  You have to log points daily for things like diet, exercise, mobility, supplements, etc.  The diet is the hardest for most people.  You have 5 points daily and basically you need to eat clean, i.e. no grains, sugar, processed foods, alcohol, etc.

The first go round I ate Paleo and did great.  I lost 20 pounds and really enjoyed the transition.  This time I hadn't changed my eating much before starting the challenge.  So I'm not sure why I was disappointed when we started the challenge and I didn't see any weight loss.  I somehow thought it would just start falling off again just because I paid money to sign up for a challenge.

After the first week without any drop in the scale I decided to strictly zone my foods for the next week. I wrote everything down and got feedback from the experts at my box.  I realized I was only eating 8-9 blocks a day.  Most of the other girls were eating 11, so I decided to up my blocks to see how it went.  Turns out that was what I needed!  I'm down 4 pounds and have never eaten better!  My husband comments on how we have had the best dinners in the last two weeks.  Even the kids are mostly enjoying all of our meals!  Surprisingly they have really liked a lot of the dinners.

My biggest surprise when I started zoning my meals was that I was eating way too much protein at meals. I was thinking I was about 3 oz, but after weighing I realized it was close to 6 oz!  So that along with adding more snacks has been helpful.

I will post up some of the best recipes I've come across soon.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Battle of the Boxes

So I did it!  My first crossfit competition, Battle of the Boxes was this past Saturday.  I was slightly nervous, but less than I expected.

My workout was a min Helen.  It was two rounds of a 300 meter run, 14 kettlebell swings (35lb) and 8 pull ups.  I was surprised at how young and fit the other three women were in my heat and was even more surprised at how dang fast they took off for the first run.  I did my best to not fall behind and we all four entered the door together.  Two pulled ahead at the pull ups and were out the door before me, but I had a good lead on the fourth.  I ended up finishing in 5:04, which was okay.  There was an 8 minute time cap, so at least I finished well ahead of that.  But overall that put me in 16th place of 24.  I guess considering many of those girls were half my age, I should be pleased.



Then we moved on to the strength portion.  It was the Crossfit Total.  There was a 7 minute time cap for all four team members to find their 1 rep max of: back squat, shoulder press & deadlift.  My three teammates are WAY stronger than me so it was decided they would hit their max on the back squat and then as we stripped the plates for shoulder press, I'd hit what I knew was close to my max.  It ended up not giving me much time but I ended at 165 which was a 5# PR, so I was fine with it.  Then I hit the first shoulder presses.  I got two presses in.  One at 85 # and one at 90#.  That was an 7.5# PR, so I'll take it.  Deadlift I got three pulls in.  My last max was 225#, and on this one I hit 245# and then let them take over.  I didn't want to waste their time when I knew they'd kill it at over 300, the boys up over 400#'s!  We ended up finishing in 8th place overall, which I think was the highest for our box in the intermediate division.

So all in all I had a great time seeing such amazing competitors out there, and being there to cheer on my friends.  Watching the advanced division just brought it to a whole new level.  So impressive!

And now Monday morning, I get to go hit a full Helen!  What?! Yep that's our WOD today.  I'm still sore from Saturday, but it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Have any of you ever participated in any other crossfit events besides the Open?  How did it go, and how did you do personally?

Monday, February 11, 2013

Today's WOD

I'm starting to get nervous.  I went to workout this morning and just before the WOD, we go over upcoming events.  The next Whole Life Challenge starts this Saturday.  I know it'll be good for me to cut out the dairy and Mexican food again, so I'm looking forward to this.  But I know it's tough to get through all eight weeks, so I'm a bit nervous.

Then there's the Battle of the Boxes that I agreed to compete in.  It's teams of four, two men, two women.  I never planned to compete, that's not why I crossfit.  But it seems they're always short women at our box and I know it'd be fun.  So I got talked into joining an intermediate team.  But it seems everyone else on my team would be fine in the advanced division.  That I'm just not ready for.  But I don't want to hold them back either.  So we'll see how this plays out.  Either way, I'm nervous about doing my first competition.  1 rep max lifts are not my thing, but at least now I've tried every lift so I know what I'm in for.

Lastly there's the open.  Again I have no desire to compete.  But last year our box did every open workout on Thursday and again on Saturday.  I happened to go every Thursday back then so other than the first week when they only did it on Saturday, I ended up doing every workout anyway.  At that point I thought I should've just signed up to see where I fell against others.  Now here we are again and I'm not sure if I want to sign up or not.  I'm old enough to now qualify for the masters division.  But even at that, I see women every day in that category that kick my butt.  So while it'd be fun to see where I fell (and yes I mean that literally!), I'm wondering if it would just be more money out the window.  I guess I have a little bit of time to think on this one.

I'd love to hear from fellow crossfitters why you will or will not participate in the Open this year.

Oh just to finish it off, our WOD today was: Diane with a finisher of max reps toes to bar.

I did Diane in 7:45 but subbed handstand push ups for 30# push presses.  And got 23 toes to bar.
Nope not me in the photo, just a great shot of toes to bar & it had credits.