New Leaf

Been a while, I know. TAKS planning, grading, new LPAC chair position, new mother to tutor, etc. have kept me crazy busy. I have also started practicing Bikram yoga (thank you, Howard!!!), which has presented an awesome new challenge and caused soreness in brand-new areas that CF never provided. Speaking of CF, I have finally heeded my inklings and desires and joined CF Deep. After more than two weeks of wod-less days filled with Bikram, Double Fran was NOT the ideal wod to return to!!! As soon as I walked toward the box, I saw people doing thrusters and pull-ups, and the panic set in. FRAN! Then I see Pat, and he laughs at me and says that it's DOUBLE Fran! I almost peed myself, bolted, and drove home. But I didn't. Several people already saw me (darn it!!!), plus Mel was expecting me. I couldn't bail with all that at stake. So I stayed. And suffered. A lot. Did my first go at rx'd weight but at the wise suggestion from Mel, used the thinnest band (thinner than red) for my pull-ups. Geez I'm glad I listened to her, although I'll admit my cockiness reared its ugly head a bit. Until I got totally schooled. First set of 21 thrusters and pull-ups wasn't too bad...but the set of 15 felt like torture. My grip got so bad that I could do only doubles, then singles. Switch-gripping did nothing to help me out. I finished in 9:42. Then there was five minutes of rest before I had to do it all over again! I wanted to go home and skip the second part. But Mel was still there, plus the lifting coach and other coaches I've known for a while. I couldn't not finish the wod. I swallowed my pride and let Mel take off the 10s. Took almost 15 minutes to finish the second Fran. Ugh! I used just the barbell (45#) and a red band that time. Let me tell you, doing single pull-ups 21, 15, and 9 times really sucks. My hands and shoulders are still shaky, and I can't grip properly. It was interesting trying to towel-dry my hair. But you know, I am so pumped up and looking forward to the next ass-kicking!!!

An interesting note about CF Deep: Members are expected to learn everyone's name by the end of the warm-up (for that class). That's just awesome.

Random

Hope everyone's 2011 is going well so far! Back to the grind for me...well, I had to create a narrative using this week's new vocabulary words. Here it is (although I'm not sure where I was going with it, but remember it's written for 20+-year-old students):

Close your eyes. Imagine the most spectacular light-show your eyes have ever beheld. Emerald greens, richly dark purples, garish reds, nearly neon yellows: all exploding and sparkling before your dazed corneas. Where are you standing? Or are you sitting? Lying down? No matter. Does it seem plausible that you have stumbled into a Disney World Electric Parade? Oh wait, you're an adult! You can't admit to that unless you want your cool friends to disavow their relationship with you, that and your outrageous fantasy might induce fantastic panic among these exceptionally awesome individuals. Never mind their implicit trust in the social networking system called Facebook, where they have a 100 gazillion trillion "friends" and are therefore superawesomecoolrad.

Oh yeah, and I PR'd on the Chief today--used 88# which is 13# more than last time we did it. My PR wasn't too big but it was still more reps than I did last time! Got 17 rounds plus 3 cleans and 6 pushups. Now that I can do pushups rx'd in WODs (never thought that'd ever happen!), I feel so much better/worse. I love not having to do knee pushups, but my chestal muscles and triceps hate me for days afterward. Oh, BTW, I did the 150 pushups for time WOD where you have to run a 400 each time you pause/have to shake it out/etc. I finished all 150 rx'd in 26:41 and ran over 2 miles (LOL)--9 400s. But last time we did this one, I stopped at 100 and could barely get them all out rx'd. Love progress!!!

Hello World

Well, I finally did it. I finished graduate school!!!! How does it feel? As the days progress, and I realize that I don't have a discussion board or a project waiting for me, my heart feels lighter and lighter. I completed my final assignment last night at 9:20 p.m., but the finality didn't really sink in until later today. Instead of thinking right after work, man, I have to get home so I can finish my schoolwork, I found myself thinking, what am I going to do tonight to celebrate being finished?? What an awesome feeling!

I decided to mark the occasion with a Big Night Out four-course meal at The Melting Pot. I hadn't been there since my birthday last January, and what better way to celebrate freedom than to stuff yourself with cheese fondue, salad, beef, duck, chicken, shrimp, and veggies, AND chocolate creme brulee fondue? Oh, and of course a glass of lovely Pinot Noir to complement it all. And Kason had a nice frosty glass of Old Rasputin waiting for me when I got home from work. Love him and love being finished!! I really can't believe I'm all done--it feels like just yesterday I was figuring out which courses I needed to take and when, charting my plan of action, and mentally preparing myself for the long haul. Was it all worth the sleepless nights, week of the flu, junk food cravings, sporadic workout schedule, and overload of cortisol? YES! I can't wait to meet all of the colleagues I learned and interacted with this past year and a half. December will be here before I know it! That is going to be an awesome, exciting month. More to come later...

Plan

I need a plan to get me going on these lesson plans and FINAL graduate course assignments. I do have two more days left of "break" before I return to work full-time (no kiddos, just on-campus training and teacher prep days) and start my class, but I feel like I need to be getting my tush in gear for the crazy next two months. But I can't get myself going! I think I'm making myself wait to see if Kason returns this weekend. Either he comes back or finishes his OCS training all the way to October. I feel like I "can't" decide my next move until I know exactly when he'll be back with me. :/

Well, I finally got my Implanon inserted yesterday morning. Truth be told, I did feel a bit anxious lying there with my arm in position. But my doctor is an expert at using needles and scalpels without causing pain or discomfort--didn't feel a thing!! The only pain I felt was the nervous energy in my stomach before the actual procedure, the not knowing. But even the prick of the needle that delivered the lidocaine was nothing. Getting my blood drawn imparts much more discernible sensations. Then my doc made a small incision to facilitate the insertion, and she was finished with everything before I knew it. There was an intern who came in to observe the procedure, and I guess it was too much for her, poor thing. She had to leave the room! I'll admit--when I watched a YouTube vid of the process, I did feel a bit squeamish. I kept my eyes glued to the ceiling when I actually had it done--that definitely helped. The doc made a compression wrap for my arm, which looked pretty bad-ass! :) But it started itching by night time, so I was happy to be able to remove it this morning. I get to take the bandaid off tomorrow morning--kinda curious to see what it'll look like under there! I have an interesting bruise at the site where the front end of the rod was inserted. Amy, what's the reason behind it? :) Anyway, I'm totally happy that I don't have to take a pill everyday anymore, and I just have to get this little guy replaced every three years. I don't like to think about the removal procedure though...lots of possible complications, including scar tissue and the like. But I'll worry about that in 2013. :) I have to wait until Monday to workout (no dirt or sweat allowed--Staph is no fun!), and then I have to wait a week before I can do anything involving arms. I foresee lots of running, air squatting, and situp-ing in my future! Not too bummed about that, though--I got a 10# PR on clean and 5# PR on jerk on Wednesday: 125# clean; 135# jerk. :D I could do only 35 pullups (5 unbroken at a time) in 2 minutes, though, but that's my usual Tabata number, so I guess that makes sense.

Going to be a fun day tomorrow--going to the Dallas Convention Center to witness some CF greatness at a friendly competition, as well as live MMA fights (woohoo!!!). Okay, I'm motivated to go clean now, especially if Kason returns this weekend.

Hi y'all!

Smell that? That, my friends, is the smell of freedom. Granted, it's not complete freedom--I do have brand-new English classes to create lesson plans for within these next two weeks, but I have a week off from graduate school! This class I just finished was by far the most demanding, yet the most rewarding. It took me a while to really get the hang of all the jargon and whatnot of research proposal-writing, but five weeks later, I feel like I know much more about my profession, my potential as an educational researcher, and myself personally. August 16 will be the first day of my capstone course. October 10 will be my last day of graduate school!!! I can't believe how quickly this past year and some change have gone by! Of course, while I was in session, I felt like I'd never get to the end, but looking back, I am so incredibly proud and grateful for this opportunity to extend my knowledge and expertise--I feel like I can be a better teacher for my students and really see who they are, what they need, and how important they are to this country's future (hell, to the world's future!). Gotta go finish my research proposal...brb.

Goal accomplished! 47 pages later (that includes cover page and six appendices), I now feel like I can conquer the world, muahahahahaaaaaa!!! But my brain is too tired to do that at the moment. :{

Workouts have been hit-and-miss since my last post, but I did PR on push press (115#), 400m sprint (1:19 from 1:25), and OHS x3 (99# and got 110# x2). Overall, I'm not eating enough and definitely have not been as Paleo as I would like/need to be (I blame grad school!!!!). Sleep deprivation took its toll on quite a few of the doozies, like "Amanda" and the 800m run/150 DUs/50 box jumps/150 DUs/800m hell WOD we did a few weeks ago. Definitely sucked big-time!!! The latest awful WOD was on Wednesday--7 rounds of 5 push presses and 15 unbroken wall ball shots. OMGGGGGG! I used 83# because all the 45 barbells were taken (not that the extra 2# would have made much of a diff--it still sucked!!!). Finished in 13:36 with many of those seconds spent with my hands on my knees. Ack!

Today, we did "Gwen," another sucky girl WOD. 15-12-9 of clean & jerk, but you have to do the sets touch-and-go with as much rest as needed in between sets. I used 85# and couldn't turn my mind off for the second set (12 reps). Stopped after 5 and totally bombed out. But I did the remaining 7 unbroken. (I should have done all 12 over again, but Amber was nice and said to just do the rest of my reps.) Final 4 in the last set took so much outta me!! My mental game is so crappy. Definitely gotta work on it before ACO.

All right, time to eat, watch a movie, and SLEEEEEEP! :D

Hell-en

As most of you know, the 2010 CrossFit Games were last weekend. When I wasn't glued to my school work, I was glued to the Crossfit site to watch it live. So awesome! Anyway, the second individual WOD was Pyramid Double Helen. Doesn't that in itself just sound awful? It's basically six rounds of Helen broken into a 3-2-1 rep scheme, so: 1200m run, 63 KB swings, 36 pull-ups; 800m run, 42 KB swings, 24 pull-ups; and finally, 400m run, 21 KB swings, 12 pull-ups. The fastest men's time was 16:59 (cut-off was 22 min.), and I can't remember the fast women's time, but the cut-off was 24 min. I knew we would have to do at least one of the Games WODs but wasn't expecting this one!!!! Ack! And I was unable to do the morning class or the noon because I had to fast last night for blood work this morning, and Mel would like me to do the WOD with her on Thursday, so I will mentally prepare myself for it in the meantime. I'll work on my school work tonight and make good use of that extra hour. Roosters in the morning!

WED: New girl WOD from last year's Games: "Amanda" 9-7-5 of muscle-ups and snatch. Looks easy, right? WRONG! I subbed pull-ups/dips for the muscle-ups, so I did 18 p/d for the first round and 14 p/d for the second round. Had I made it to the third round, which I didn't, I would have done 10 p/d. Sam kept telling us that we would be able to finish the WOD in 12 minutes (cut-off) if we knew how to do the movements right. Well, apparently, my snatch sucks too much because I finished the first two rounds only. I used 73# (used 38# bar as that was all that was left besides 33# and 15#), and I just couldn't get my act together on the snatches. The pull-ups and dips weren't the issue. My technique on snatch prevented me from finishing in time! So, I still need to work on this lift, and once I feel like I've pretty much mastered it, I'll try Amanda again. I wonder, though, if I'd been able to do MU progressions (I have those down pat), would I have finished before cut-off? The class was too large for that kind of sub, but it bugs me to think of it. I know some previous classes did do progressions, and their times were fine. Anyway, it's water under the bridge. On to the next one.

THURS: HELL-en and I mean H-E-L-L. I would have been laughed out of the Games!!! Did it rx'd and finished in 36:09. I wasted tons of seconds resting too much and trying to catch my breath. I know my mental game just wasn't there today, nor was it yesterday. Could it be that my brain power has been sapped by my graduate course? The academic thinking portion of my brain has usurped the reserves in the athletic/physical part, methinks. Ugh. Either way, this Games WOD was no joke, and I have all that more respect and awe for the competitors. Here was my running internal monologue as I went through it:

1200m run: Good steady pace, a bit slow for my taste, but I want to keep Mel's pace so I don't get too tired...
64 KB swings: 15 per set isn't too bad...hmm, my arms and hips feel okay so far...just keep chalking between sets
36 pull-ups: Ack, 5 per set ain't gonna be possible for me. No grip! Gasp, gasp, rrrrgh!
800m run: pantpantpant...ugh this sun is hoooooooooot pantpantpant...keep moving, legs!! No walking!!!!
42 KB swings: Hoooboy are my arms and hips feeling tired...get that bell up! Stay calm, keep that pace...omg Mel is already on her pull-ups! 10, 11, 12...
24 pull-ups: Grrrr, two reps at a time? Stupid pull-ups, stupid pull-ups, can't get my breath, stupid pull-ups! Darn it, I ripped! Back to it!!!
400m run: Just...gotta...keep...breathing...gah that sun is hot!!!!
21 KB swings: 11 and 10, keep swinging, thank you Mel for counting the last 10 for me...
12 pull-ups: Two at a time, two at a time, keep me going Mel, okay last six, three at a time! DOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!

In retrospect, I should have pushed myself harder on the runs, and the KB swings ended up being less of an issue than I had thought. Pull-ups still need work. Above all, I needed someone to count and push me--I am so bad about that if I'm going through it alone. Tons of things to improve! But I'm soooo glad I actually went in and did it. Next time I'll do better!!!!

Jason 2

Sounds like a cheesy horror sequel, doesn't it? Well, it was horrible, but in a different way.

I did this hero WOD last year shortly after I joined CFDC. I remember it sucking then (mostly all the dips), and it sure sucked the second time around. I'm wondering if it would have felt as bad if I'd done it at noon (missed my regular WOD time reeeeeally badly today!!!). Haha, now I'm just making excuses, right?

We started off with five sets of a heavy 3 on jerk. I got up to 115 but just couldn't get my head through/elbows locked out on that third rep. So my heavy 3 is 105: not complaining but still should have gotten that last jerk at 115, I think.

During Jason, I had to just focus on counting all the squats. I did sets of 25 on the first 100; did my 10 pull-ups/10 GHD box dips; and then I did sets of 10-15 for the remaining rounds of squats. The squats really weren't too bad, but my legs are still shaky, as are my shoulders and arms. 100 total pull-ups and GHD dips will do that to you!! I finished in 21:43, which was over the 20-minute cut-off, but Sam gave us 25 minutes to finish. The pull-ups were what held me back. I did my first set unbroken with no problem, and then I broke up the 20-30-40 sets into fives--I did five pull-ups followed by five dips. Just couldn't keep my grip for some reason. Anyway, I know I did loads better this time around, but it still sucked! Glad that's over, and now it's time to shower and get back to my work. Wonder what tomorrow's pain is going to be (I'm hitting up the noon for sure!! Can't take the evening heat, bleh!).

Looked at my old time back in April (it was the first month I'd joined CF, too! Thanks, Jamie, for telling us when we last did it), and I finished in 22:50, but I didn't specify whether I did the 3:1 ratio as noted on the blog or 1:1 like I noticed others doing...Since I didn't even have pull-ups yet, I would deduce that I did it 1:1. If that's the case, then I'm happy with how I did today! Also, back in the day, we didn't do a strength WOD before doing a met-con, and that day, all we did was "Jason", so now I'm doubly happy! :)