CAL - Week 2

This week we competed at Crossfit Impavidus in Ashburn, VA. They had the most insane Grid rig setup and their space is unbelievable. I was speechless when I walked in.

Our workouts for week 2:

Race 1: Team Effort (2 Sector, 12 minute AMRAP)

4 Athletes participate with only 2 Athletes on the floor at a time, with unlimited substitutions. Athletes will complete the required work in sector 1 prior to advancing to the AMRAP in sector 2. Athletes can work up until the 12 minute mark in sector 2 and do not have to cross a finish line or return to the start line to complete the race.  Score is total number of reps completed in sector 2. 

Sector 1:
100 Front Rack Lunges (buy in)
Upper: 165/105
Open: 115/75
Novice: 75/45

Sector 2:
21 Deadlift
Upper: 225/155
Open: 185/115
Novice: 115/75

15 Box Jumps
Upper: 30/24
Open: 24/20
Novice: step-ups, 24/20

9 Handstand push-ups
Upper: Deficit (45+25# plates w/abmat)
Open: abmat
Novice: hand release push-ups

Verity Strong’s Placement: 3^rd

Race 2: Double Double (15 minute, 3 sector AMRAP)

4 Athletes participate with only 2 Athletes on the floor at a time, with unlimited substitutions.  At the call race, 2 athletes move into the first sector and begin work (both athletes working at the same time at their station) while the other two athletes remain at the start line. There will be two stations within each sector and the work (number of reps) must be complete at each station before moving on to the next sector (work DOES NOT need to be synchronized).  Once all work is complete in sector 1, athletes move on to sector 2, and so on. Athletes can work up until the 15 minute mark and do not have to cross a finish line or return to the start line to complete the race.  If a team completes all work in all 3 sectors in less than 15 minutes, they will return to the beginning of the AMRAP and continue working until time expires. Score is total reps completed in 15 minutes.

Sector 1:
50 Power Clean/Hang Squat Clean Combo (EACH STATION) total of 100
Upper: 135/95
Open: 95/65
Novice: Power clean + front squat 65/45 (NO Squat cleans for Novice)

Sector 2:
75 Medicine Ball Pull-ups (EACH STATION) total of 150
Upper: 20/14
Open: Pull-ups
Novice: Ring-Rows

Sector 3:
100 Thrusters at (EACH STATION) total of 200
Upper: 135/95
Open: 95/65
Novice: 65/45

Verity Strong’s Placement: 3^rd  

After week 2 Verity Strong is in first place overall. Our team was missing 2 members this week due to prior commitments so we had a total of 4 people doing the work above.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from week 2:

24" Box Jumps

Medicine Ball Pullups (14#)

Thrusters (95#)

Getting those last reps in before the time cap.

Are you interested in competing in CAL’s upcoming season? Click here.

Do you want to see how Verity is stacking up each week? Click here.

CAL - Week 1

My box, Crossfit Verity, decided to sign up for the 2015 summer season of CAL this year. We have 3 teams competing from our box, Verity Strong (Upper division), Verity Power (Open division & Verity Force (also Open division); there is also a Novice division. We just finished our week 2 of competition so I’m a little behind the ball on this post. I’m actually behind on several posts this summer – it’s been crazy busy.

I'm a member of Verity Strong and each division noted above has their own requirements. For upper division we are required to perform the following movements/weights throughout the summer season:

Burpees over the box (30”/24”)

Thrusters (155#/105#)

Front Rack Lunges (165#/105#)

Deadlift (225#/155#)

Box Jumps (30”/24”)

Handstand pushups (deficit)

Abmat sit up w/ plate (45#/25#)

Dumbbell Snatch (65#/45#)

Hang Power Cleans (155#/105#)

Overhead Squats (153#/95#)

Clusters (Squat Clean Thrusters) (165#/105#)

Snatch (135#/95#)

Back Squats (Bar from floor) (165#/105#)

Hang Squat Snatches (135#/95#)

Shoulder to Overhead (135#/95#)

Ring Muscle-ups

Ground to Overhead (155#/105#)

Weighted Pistols (24kg/16kg)

Doug Unders (.75# Rope)

Hand Release Burpees to Plate (45# plate)

Toes to Bar/Chest to Bar Pullup Combo

Box Jump Overs (30”/24”)

Wallballs (20#/14# to 10’ target)

Overhead Lunges (95#/75#)

Medicine Ball Pullups (20#/14#)

Our workouts for week 1:

Race 1: Team Effort (1 Sector, 12 minute AMRAP)

4 Athletes participate with only 2 Athletes on the floor at a time, with unlimited substitutions*.  Athletes can work up until the 12 minute mark and do not have to cross a finish line or return to the start line to complete the race.  Score is total number of reps completed in 12 minutes. 

Sector 1: 
Burpees over the box
Upper: 30/24
Open: 24/20
Novice: Bar

Thrusters
Upper: 135/95
Open: 95/65
Novice: 65/45

Teams will alternate movements starting with Burpees Over the Box with repetitions beginning at 2 and increasing by 2 each set (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc).

*Unlimited substitution means that athletes can substitute at any time, in any order, by returning to the start line and tagging in another athlete. **Score for this race will be the season tie-breaker.  If a tie remains, the combined score (reps) from this race and week 1, race 2 will be used.

Verity Strong’s Placement: 1^st

Race 2: Echo Race (Back to Back 5 min AMRAPs with 2 minutes of rest between)

4 Athletes participate (the same 4 athletes participate in both 5 minute AMRAPs) with only 2 Athletes on the floor at a time, with unlimited substitutions.  The first 5 minute AMRAP will start in sector 1 and work forward.  The second 5 minute AMRAP will begin in sector 3 and work backwards.  Athletes can work up until the 5 minute mark in each AMRAP and do not have to cross a finish line or return to the start line to complete the race.

If a team completes all work in all 3 sectors in less than 5 minutes, they will return to the beginning of the AMRAP (sector 1 for AMRAP 1 and sector 3 for AMRAP 2) and continue working until time expires.  Score is total combined reps for both 5 minute AMRAPs.

Sector 1:
30 Muscle-ups
Open: 50 Pull-ups
Novice: 50 ring rows

Sector 2:
30 Ground to Overhead
Upper: 155/105
Open: 115/75
Novice: 75/55

Sector 3:
30 Weighted Pistols
Upper: 24/16kg
Open: Goblet Squats 24/16kg
Novice: Goblet Squats 24/16kg

Verity Strong’s Placement: 1st

After week 1 Verity Strong is in first place overall. This competition took place at Crossfit Foggy Bottom in DC, probably the smallest box I've ever been to. One of my favorite parts of doing CAL is getting to visit other boxes in the area. Here are a few of my favorite photos from week 1:

Warming up 

Good booty shot. ;o)

Burpee Box Jump Overs (24") with hand release

My crew - Verity Strong

Group photo at end of Week 1 - upper division

 Photo credits: P. Nguyen

If you’re a crossfitter and are interested in competing in CAL’s upcoming season, go to their website for more information on signing up click here.

If you want to see how Verity is stacking up each week, you can follow online at Summer Results click here.

Bittersweet PR

If you follow me on any social media sites, Facebook, Instagram, etc., you already know that for the past 9 weeks I’ve been doing an Olympic lifting cycle at my box. Some of you might even be sick of hearing about it. ;o)

When I first started the cycle I was definitely struggling with my percentage work because I had taken a month off prior due to a foot injury. For the first few weeks I had to scale my back squat, snatch and strict press percentages down so I could actually keep up with the programming. I’m thankful that I did & I’m glad I actually listened to my body instead of trying to just push through & potentially cause an injury.

Week after week I was a different kind of sore; Olympic lifting soreness and crossfit soreness are not one in the same - if I had to choose between one or the other I’d pick the Olympic lifting soreness. It definitely doesn’t feel as painful; you know it’s there but it doesn’t affect you like crossfit soreness does, at least not for me.

So this past Friday we were scheduled to max out on our snatch & clean & jerk lifts. As soon as I woke up that morning I was thinking about maxing out. I’ve always been more confident in my clean & jerk lift than my snatch. Snatching is just more technical and actually one of the hardest lifts in crossfit. It’s always made me more nervous, especially when it’s programmed to be heavy. When I arrived at my box that night I was still feeling nervous but a little more mentally ready. I just kept reminding myself that this is all supposed to be fun and that if I happen to not hit a PR that’s perfectly fine; if it didn’t happen that day then maybe another day. One of my coaches once told me that if you hit 90 to 95% of your PR on any given day, you should consider that a good day. That’s been my thinking since he shared that with me.

For the longest time I felt like I was stuck at 135# for my snatch. A lot of this was mental, psyching myself out each time I would try to move past it. So on Friday I planned to hit the following weights: 120#, 130#, 145# and possibly 150# depending on how things went. I can usually tell how things are going to go after my first lift, whether it’s going to be a good day or a bad day. Thankfully, 120# and 130# felt pretty easy so I was feeling confident. Here’s a video of my 145# snatch, which is a 10# PR for me:

Naturally, since that was a successful lift and felt pretty good, I decided to jump up to 150#. Here’s a video of my 3 lifts at 150#:

Sorry Mom & Dad, I didn’t mean to scare you on that last one! If I had only hit that second lift that would’ve been perfect (sigh). Instead, I ended up tweaking my left ankle trying to get out from under the bar on that last lift (bittersweet). Dammit, just dammit. Typically my fails on snatches are losing the bar in front of me and falling forward with the weight, never behind me. On that last attempt all I was thinking was get my head out of the bar path so it didn’t fall on me, but for some reason my hands didn’t want to let go of the bar. It wasn’t until it was sliding down my back that I decided to let go (shaking my head). I did get some scrapes on my back from the knurling on the bar, but nothing serious.

Needless to say, I didn’t attempt anymore lifts after that last ugly attempt at 150#. Like I said above, I was supposed to max out on my clean & jerk as well but after some moving around and stretching, my ankle didn’t feel 100% so I decided to not try and save it for another day.

The shitty part of my ankle injury this past weekend is the fact that I’m signed up for a crossfit competition in DC this coming Saturday. I know, perfect timing right. Sadly I’ve had to find someone to take my spot so I won’t be competing. In the past I would’ve just pushed through it and ultimately ended the competition with another injury on top of a tweaked ankle. I’m now a little older and a little wiser so I’m not going to push it. I’ll be in DC this weekend cheering on my teammates though.  Fingers are crossed for a speedy recovery!

Inspiration

A few times a month my Dad & I exchange our favorite motivational and inspirational quotes that we’ve come across. I use mine for #motivationmonday on Facebook & he includes his in speeches to his baseball team before or after a game.

This morning I received an email with several quotes from him, but this one was by far my favorite so I wanted to share with all of you:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, sweat and blood, who strives valiantly…who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” 

-Teddy Roosevelt

Rest Day

For some of you this day may be the most dreaded & for others it may be a godsend. I know for me, when I first found crossfit, rest days were always a hard day for me. All I wanted to do was be at the box, get a wod in & work on weaknesses so I could be that much better. Rest days always stood in the way of that. I remember the week I started at my first box – I showed up on my fifth day in a row to wod. The average crossfit schedule is 3 days on, 1 day off; 2 days on, 1 day off. So after walking into my box that night, my coach quickly walked over to me & said, “What are you doing here? This is your fifth day in a row. Go home”. I quickly responded with, “I feel fine & I really want to do this wod” (insert whining). She then said I could stay and roll out but she wasn’t allowing me to wod that night. I pouted but in the end I listened to her. After that day I reluctantly took my rest days – I learned quickly that it wasn’t any fun to go into the box & watch other people wod while you just sit there & stretch. It wasn’t until much later when I realized that my coach was doing me a favor.

Once I started competitor training my rest days turned into a godsend for me. By my third day of training my body was hurting & it wasn’t just my legs or maybe my shoulders, it was everything. Any kind of movement was a chore. I even started strategizing about the times that I would get up from my desk at work…. “Do I really need to make copies of that fax right now? Nah, I’ll wait until I run out of envelopes & kill two birds with one stone”. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait for rest days to come.

Some of us that start a new lifestyle it’s more difficult to take that time to rest because all we want is to spend time on that one thing that we love doing - we throw everything we have into it; for new crossfitters we say “They drank the kool-aid”. We all want to be spending our time doing what we love & being with people that share that same interest.

For athletes, taking rest days is extremely important for recovery & growth – not only physically but also mentally. Be mindful of your body, the work that you’re putting in & when you need that time off. Your body will always let you know the good, bad & the ugly, you just have to listen.

Unmotivated

Yesterday afternoon I hit a wall at work & all I was thinking about was that in a few hours I would be at the box lifting & squatting heavy. Just thinking about it was making me tired; I was definitely not feeling it – mentally or physically. My yawning every few minutes had already kicked in & my hips, legs & knees were tired & sore from lifting the night before. Everything was telling me to take a rest day…to go home & lie on the couch, catch up on my recorded shows & just relax. Tuesday is by no means a rest day for me – those are reserved for Thursdays & Sundays. I still had 2 more days to go.

Most of you that are reading this, my parents included, are probably thinking, “Just take a rest day. Your body is trying to tell you something”. In most cases I would agree with you; however, I’ve been working out & training long enough to know when my body needs an extra rest day and when I want a rest day & don’t feel like doing anything. Yesterday was one of those “want” days. Training was the last thing I wanted to do. It didn’t help that it was also a beautiful day in Northern Virginia - the sun was shining, it was warm, birds were chirping, etc.

So on my drive home I was still being totally indecisive & at one point I’d made the decision to go home & told myself to stay firm on that decision, but then I reached the exit that takes me to the box….doubt set in & before I knew it I was taking the exit at the last minute. I was completely annoyed with my choice as soon as I made it, getting more annoyed as I pulled into my parking spot & making the walk inside. I immediately said, “OK fine, you’re here; skip the squats, do some of the lifts & then roll out”. Of course that didn’t happen. As I started rolling out, stretching & running through my warm up, I was quickly in that mind set of completing all of the programming. At the end of my evening & after I had entered all of my results in Wodify this was my view:

For those that aren’t familiar with Wodify, the gold stars resemble a PR for that lift.

So needless to say, I was pleased with the outcome of my training last night. Yes I had moments of feeling unmotivated & not confident but those days are common & will come up. What matters is that you take a deep breath, keep your head up & push through anyway. You’ll never regret the work you put in. It’s the work you don’t do that will haunt you. 

Progress

While I was searching through my phone the other day I came across an old Youtube video of me doing pull ups. The video was taken when I first started crossfit, maybe 3 or 4 months into it (possibly longer). I must’ve watched it 5 times. At first I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even want to look at myself (they were that ugly); then I started laughing because I looked so uncoordinated; and, then I came to the realization that I’ve come a long way from when I first started. I remember some of my coaches saying, “You’ve got this donkey kick thing going on – you gotta lose that.” Yeah, you think?? (insert sarcasm) At the time I didn’t know how to get rid of it, except practice…lots of practice. My friend, Kateri, & I would go in on Sundays for open gym & work on our weaknesses. Pull ups were obviously one of the first things on my list. I remember having a bittersweet feeling when Kateri got hers before I had mine. Yes, I was happy for her (obviously) but secretly I wanted to push her off the bar. I know, I know – such a horrible thing to say but I’m being honest! What can I say, I’ve always been a competitive person. I still love you, lady. =)

Now for your viewing pleasure, my pull up video:

Another fun fact for you is that before this video was taken, & in my first months of crossfit, I was using a band to assist with my pull ups.

I never thought when I started crossfit how much of a gymnastics background would be beneficial. Lifting weights comes relatively easy to me, the gymnastics side – not so much. My weakness list is filled with gymnastic movements, i.e. toes to bar, muscle ups, chest to bar pull ups, butterfly pull ups, bar muscle ups, handstand walks, etc. The list goes on & on. I’m sure these movements will always be weaknesses of mine & I’ll probably always have to devote time to practicing them - that’s the only way they’ll ever get better. There’s always something to work on.

After seeing my old pull up video, I decided to record the pull ups that I have now. Just so I, & all of you, can compare from past to present:

2 strict pull ups, 2 kipping pull ups, 3 chest to bar pull ups

As I said above, my chest to bars need more work & more efficiency, but I can still do my inefficient ones in a WOD for now. I’ve been trying for a while now to make my butterfly pull ups a regular movement in my WODs but they still mess up my shoulders & I sound like an 80-year-old woman the entire time with my cracking & popping. Apparently that’s normal, but it doesn’t sound normal to me. One of my goals is to be able to butterfly my pull ups & my chest to bars.

My point for sharing all of this with you is to say that everyone starts somewhere. Everyone progresses at their own time & at their own pace. Don’t lose motivation just because your progress seems slow. With hard work we eventually all get to where we want to be. We all want to speed up the progress so we can be great, but remember that the process is what we get our joy from. As long as you enjoy what you’re doing, none of us are losing anything – we’re only gaining.