Pushing Myself

I probably am not doing it enough.  But maybe I am.  It's so hard to judge!

Like yesterday, our WOD was:

4 rounds, max time 25:00
Hill Run (300m, very steep)
50 Air Squats
30 Kettle Bell Swings

My 25:00 finish: 3 rounds + Hill + 10 Squats

Earlier this week I tweaked out my leg/hip, and then made it infinitely worse by running on it (Monday was a 3x800meter run) so I was a little worried (our Coach advised me to just power walk the hill if it felt bad, as that could feel better and would potentially be just as quick).  But running felt pretty good, so I totally made it (running) up the hill the first time.  I decided to walk it times 2 and 3.  By the fourth round though, I knew I wasn't going to be able to finish the whole round in under the max time, and I had walked the flat-ish 150 meters leading up to the hill, so I decided to see if I could run it one last time.  And turns out, I totally could.  I blasted up that mofo, and felt awesome about it.

So the question is, should I have pushed myself to run it on rounds 2 and 3?

I don't know.  The KB swings were also killing my lower back (still using the 35lb bell, go me!), which really made itself apparent on the way up that hill, and so I was kind of trying to pace myself for those.  Also, after my workout I had to walk to the bus stop, and after pausing for maybe 10 minutes to check my phone and the bus schedules, I found myself literally HOBBLING down the street, practically unable to move my legs with the added weight of my backpack.

Even with the slightly modified way that I did it, the workout was obviously incredibly effective.

But I RAN that last hill, no problem.  Ughhh.  I just don't know. 

I don't like vomiting but I like the idea of pushing myself hard enough that I would, at least once. Then I would really KNOW I had pushed (too) hard.

just some updates

Todays WOD:

10 rounds of:

8 Kettle Bell Swings
8 Squat Hops
8 Burpees

This pretty much knocked me on my ass.  But I did finish all 10 rounds (in 17:40 min), and with a heavier kettle bell than I usually use - I've been trying to move up to the 35lb weight, but this is the first time I've used it for a full WOD.  I'd like to remember to try and do this again in a month or so to see what my time is.

I'm also thinking of buying myself a kettle bell to use at home.  During warm-up we moved to swinging the KB around our bodies (and in figure eights through our legs) and the coach pointed out that round-the-worlds are an excellent way to tire out and work your core, perhaps especially your obliques.  And it's something I can do while I watch tv or korean dramas, etc more easily than holding planks... so... yeah... that's almost a plan.

Also, next week I'm starting back up at SWLBC, which I started last summer and really loved, but took a break from this winter.  It's outside at green lake in the morning, and it's a really great program that focuses more on women's bodies and achieving the shapes/lines they are after (as opposed to crossfit, which is more about overall awesomeness and less about shaping your waistline).

I'd like to work in some runs at greenlake or somewhere, too, so that Saturday mornings with the TM crew aren't my only runs, but I'm not sure where on earth I'll be able to fit that in, especially since school has started again.  Meh.  It's still not a top priority for me.  I figure I'll work more on running once school finishes and it gets a little nicer out.  If I find time, great, if not - there will be time later.

And I was not doing too good paleo-wise for a while, but not concerning myself with feeling overly guilty.  I just kind of felt like those eating habits would come back when I was ready for them to come back.  And then the other day I watched a lot of Gary Taubes' lectures, and lo-and-behold, my desire to eat better magically re-appeared just like I thought it would!  Thanks, Gary.  :D

Some failings, excuses, and new goals.

I got both lazy and busy since my last entry. Grad school started eating into my extra time, and I just didn't have the energy to keep up with my fitness stuff on top of everything else. And then Christmas came, and I went home fully intending to stick with my Paleo/Primal diet except for on Christmas day itself (I made my mom stock up on things like almond flour and frozen fruit before I got there). AND THEN my mom made these riDIculous chocolate cookie things with powdered sugar on the outside. (I have a big weakness for powdered sugar.)

Long story short - my paleo skills fell by the ways for about a month in some respects. I still never ate bread or starches, but lots of sugar started sneaking its way back into my life. (Ok, I have a big weakness for most kinds of sugar.) I'd say I was probably a 65-35 paleo person (MDA allows 80-20 as still being pretty good/admirable).

Also, you guys, it got MOTHERFUCKING COLD in Seattle in January. I still kept riding my bike everywhere for the most part, but when it came to riding down a steep hill to get to my exercise class at 5.45am - I wasn't up for it. I was too afraid of ice and killing myself on the way down, especially since I have a friend who had recently wiped out on some black ice at a similarly stupid time of morning, and completely demolished her bike and done some damage to her knee.

And then it wasn't so cold anymore. But I was SUPER busy with school stuff + choir stuff, and I was often staying up past midnight-1am, which meant getting up at 5.30 wasn't going to give me enough sleep to function for the rest of the day/week. At least that was the excuse I used. And I do think that was at least half of it. The other half was that I wasn't that interested anymore. I still think that class (SWLBC) is run amazingly well, and is a great way to start the day, it just had become routine enough for me by that point that I wasn't seeing great improvements nor was it really energizing my days or making me feel awesome anymore.

So my life is still fucking insane. And I want to punch grad school in the face. A lot. Like, multiple times, while holding a brick. And brass knuckles.

BUT. I'm ready to start fitting fitness back in, because I've realized I'm much happier and more productive when I'm working out regularly. Also, I signed up for an INSANE amount of mud/obstacle runs* this summer, which require a little bit of prep for. Most importantly I signed up for Tough Mudder at the end of September, which is probably borderline impossible for me to be able to do in 7 months. But dammit, it's one hell of a goal, and why the fuck not? Right?

'

So. Here I go. Back on the horse and all kinds of motivated.

I just finished the basic/essentials class at Stoneway Crossfit, which is a CF gym a couple of good friends recommended. So far, I really love it. I've always liked the idea of lifting weights, but didn't have the wherewithall to do it on my own, and didn't really like doing it in normal gyms where it would be obvious I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Crossfit is a little like having a personal trainer - but s/he's training 6-10 other people at the same time, too. The first couple of sessions I was incredibly sore in my legs afterwards (endless squats and deadlifts with medecine balls). But I still felt pretty much in my comfort zone, and didn't quite understand all the fuss people make about how tough it is. On session before "graduation" though, they incorporated burpees into our newbie WOD (workout of the day). What's a burpee, you ask? (Yes, some people don't know yet.) This is a burpee:

My burpees do not look like that. Imagine that kind of movement happening, but much much slower, and with much much more wheezing after burpee #2. Burpees are my new least favorite thing on the planet. The entire WOD for the day was:

400m run

10 push ups

15 burpees

20 medicine ball cleans (kind of a double-squat action with a 10lb medecine ball)

We were supposed to do it 3 times.

After I finished round number 1, I decided I would be really really fucking impressed with myself if I managed 2 rounds. Which I TOTALLY did. Go. Me. Then, since people were still going I headed out for round #3. I may have been the last one still going (a couple of people stopped at 2), but I totally finished that motherfucker THREE times. I still kind of can't believe that I did. I mean, theoretically it doesn't seem that bad, but burpees just KILL ME. Also, I had eaten complete shit the day before (it was more of a 15-85 paleo day).... so that may have been messing me up. Anyway. That day really impressed upon me what crossfit could be like, and why people have been known to throw up.

Graduation day was easy in comparison. Not easy overall, but I didn't feel like I was going to faint before I finished. Our graduation WOD:

400m run

50 kettle bell swings (I think mine was 12kg?)

40 situps

30 burpees

20 medecine ball cleans

400m run

We only did this one once, and it was timed (I was at 15:30ish). And there were still lots of burpees, but since they were all at once they didn't destroy my life so hard as the first time. (Also, I ate a lot better in prep for this class.)

And now that I had graduated, I was ready to go to real classes! Although admittedly I still wanted to go to classes coached by Scott, since I knew he knew me and how new I was :P

So, biting the bullet, I signed up for the very next morning at 6am.

Where our WOD was:

Straight Press

1-1-1-1

Burpee AMRAP

7 minutes

Let me interpret that for you. Straight overhead press - with a bar and weights, working up to your max single rep weight (which I now know is 55lbs, which is an okay place to start, I guess). Then, As Many Reps As Possible - Burpees for 7 minutes straight. It's like the cosmos was forcing my to get over my intense dislike for these things as soon as possible. I only did 44 burpees, but I was still proud. And we did 20 during warmup, so I went ahead and pushed out another 6 before I left, just so I could say that I did 100 of those fuckers in just over 12 hours. (Or 70 before 7.30am.)

So, Crossfit is going well. And I'm excited to learn more things and learn to lift weights AND finally build the muscles I'll need to be able to do a pull-up. (We did do assisted pull-ups with resistance bands, which I could only do a couple of, with the strongest band they had.) Crossfit is definitely one of the best things about my life right now - or at least the thing I look the most forward to, and which causes me the least amount of stress. ^_^

Going back to Tough Mudder. The other reason I think I can do this is that I've got a great support of people who are going to be insane with me! We've appropriately named ourselves the "Hell-O-Kitties". We're getting T-shirts made. We also started training this morning - we're trail running every Saturday until the race, rain or shine. Today we did Discovery Park (probably a 3.5 mile trail), and felt pretty great. It's admittedly more running than I've done in months, and I was the slowest in the pack, but I don't think I held anyone back too badly.

I've also made a commitment to eating better. I've actually been eating pretty well for the last week - Paleo/Primal is back at at least a 70-30 if not better, and I've been trying to cut back on my dairy intake and use my juicer more. But I realized I keep failing at consistency mostly because I'm not very good at being accountable to only myself, so Haley (also doing Tough Mudder!) is holding me to a 12,000 calories a week, or I have to do 75 burpees Saturday morning when we do our trail run. I'm constantly glad for the technology in my life, because without MyFitnessPal on my phone, counting calories like this would not be a do-able thing for me.

So that's the what's going on. The new goals are just really steps to ToughMudder. I'd still like to drop another 15 pounds, and if I'm working out like I plan to and keeping better track of how much I'm eating, I think that will happen without too too much effort. I'm also hoping I can get to a full pull-up by June 1st, but I'm not sure how long it takes to build up that much muscle. Everything comes down to my ability to stick-with-it and not relapse into not-really-giving-a-shit. Which is why I signed up for Tough Mudder. If I have any hope of making it through that thing, I can't slack off between now and September.

Also, did you get the impression that completing Tough Mudder makes you kind of a legitimate bad-ass? Because I did. And you know who's a bad-ass?

That's right. Sarah-motherfucking-Connor.

Mission: Unavoidable.

6 Week Challenge

Inspired by this at NerdFitness:

"a challenge, you say?

yes, a challenge! we're asking you to take a look at your life and figure out what areas you want to level up. then, you set goals to help you get the EXP needed to get to the next level.

alrighty then, how does this all work?

simple! just follow these easy steps below: first, look over your life. figure out 3 diet and fitness goals and 1 life levelling goal. the life goal can be in any area you want - finances, organization, bee keeping... whatever you want.

wait, just 3? or can i have more?

you can have as many as you want, but remember the more goals you have, the more overwhelming everything can get, and the more likely you are to fail. its better to be successful at less than to fail at everything, right?

ok, but i don't know how to set goals!

Well, that's fine! We can teach you. First, Steve has a post here:

http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/01/...-goal-setting/

But basically, you want your goals to be SMART - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely.

So you need to be looking to accomplish something specific (like, say, a push up), you need to be able to measure your progress, it needs to be something you CAN attain (like a weight loss goal of 50lbs in 6 weeks is NOT realistic or attainable, so a bad goal), and timely - it needs to be able to be able to be accomplished in 6 weeks.

ok, i picked my goals, now what!

take a photo and starting measurements. you dont have to post the photo, but it keeps you more accountable that you do. then, every day (or however often you want, but its more successful if you do it every day) update your thread with your progress. at the end of the challenge, you'll give yourself a grade on how you did, and we'll pick a winner out of everyone!

oh. but that sounds like it requires work.

not going to lie. it does. and it can be hard, but in the end, it's worth it, i promise."

Six weeks from now is December 25th, so this works really well with the other goal I already had.

Fitness Goals:

Goal 1: Weigh 135lbs on December 25th.

Goal 2: Be able to do 40 push-ups in a row.

Goal 3: Be able to do 5 good-form dips.

Life Goal:

Pay off one credit-card completely.

Some Goals

The Plan:

* CHRISTMAS: Weigh 135 on December 25th, 2011.

> No sugar till Thanksgiving (or $100 is lost to a friend in a bet)

> Paleo Diet Mon-Fri

* VALENTINE'S: Be able to do a pull-up on February 14, 2012.

> Strength training 3 times a week.

> (purchase a pull-up bar)

That's all for now. I feel like making up other things just to make the list longer would not be helpful in the long run. I need to actually feel committed and motivated to make these happen.

Completed Goals:

- cut diet coke out of my diet (completed January 2011)

- cut unnatural caffeine out of my diet (completed June 2011)

- weigh 150lbs on my birthday (completed ahead of schedule, August 2011)