Trust the process

Tonight at Crossfit the WOD was as follows:

AMRAP in 16 mins:

200 m run
6 one leg squats (each leg)
12 dumbbell snatches (each arm) 25#

On the surface, not too bad. But let's dig deeper. Running I suck at because of the pounding on the knee. Anything that has any kind of pounding it rough on my knee. So there's that. The one leg squat,this:

I can do on my left leg but not even close on my right leg. So I decided to work on building strength in both legs and go heavy (Rx) on the dumbbell snatches to get a workout in. In order to build my strength, I used a 20" one of these:

and used the form of a pistol but went really slow up and down. It really worked because after just a couple my legs were screaming.

Now in this 16 mins, I only got in 2 full rounds, a 200 m run, 6 squats on each leg, and 14 snatches. But my form was awesome. I was really working what needed to be worked. I felt really good doing it and when I was done. I know that I pushed myself with the snatches and I know that I built some strength with the box squats. I am just so happy with myself and so very, very glad I am finally learning to work my strengths and strengthen my weaknesses. I'm happy.

Knowing yourself

Part of the journey to health is knowing yourself. After 54 years on the planet, I am finally getting to know myself really, really well. Tonight at Crossfit the WOD was as follows:

3 rounds for time:
5 hang power cleans
5 thrusters
25 push-ups

I saw that and thought and thought and thought about it. I can do hang power cleans and I can do thrusters. I can not do push-ups. Because of my shoulder, I have to do them on an elevated box. So looking at that WOD, I knew that the limiting factor was going to be the push-ups. I could not do real push-ups and doing them on the box was tough but not that tough. So I thought why don't I go heavy on the cleans and thrusters, and easy on the push-ups. So I did. I went 65# on the cleans and thrusters. That is heavy. Most of the women went a lot lighter. I struggled. But I did them and I got through the WOD without too much problem.

I'm finally learning my strengths and weaknesses and when to accept them or push them. It was a good night.

Crossfit Open 14.2

When this WOD came out on Thursday I was a little excited. Not that I was going to crush it or anything, but that it was doable. I was hoping to get 2 rounds done. Okay, the WOD:

0-3 minutes
2 rounds:
10 overhead squats
10 chest to bar
3-6 minutes
2 rounds:
12 overhead squats
12 chest to bar
6-9 minutes
14 overhead squats
14 chest to bar

Adding 2 reps every 3 minutes until you can not finish 2 rounds in the 3 minutes.

When I saw the WOD on Thursday, my thoughts were - I can do this. I can do overhead squats, though they are tough with my knee and my shoulder. Because I'm 55 I get to do the jumping chest to bar. Totally thought I could do that. Boy, was I wrong. Got to the box and warmed up, tried a few overhead squats, knew they would be hard but also knew I could do them. Tried the jumping chest to bar, and could not even get close. Ugh!! I could just not jump high enough. I tried and tried and tried and could not get one. Oh well, I have it my all and only got 10 reps. Oh well, just another thing to work on.......

Left it all at the box

Yesterday, after I did 14.1, I toyed with the idea of redoing it again today to try and better my score. I was going back and forth between doing it or not doing it....Then I woke up this morning. Everything hurts. My quads, hamstrings, traps, triceps. Every. Thing. So if there was any question about whether I gave 14.1 everything I had, the answer is yes I did. I would not be able to do any better today and in fact would probably do a lot worse. So there will be no redo of 14.1 for me.

I will instead be working on school work. Yesterday's time management post got me to thinking about how best to stay on top of all this work. Since I do most of my work on the weekends, I can just shift from working on the assignments the weekend they are due to working on them the weekend before they are due. That way, most of the work will get done before they are due. If any problems or questions come up, I have all week to figure it out. And then I can look at it a few times before I turn it in. So that will be my goal and it starts today. Yesterday I did some work, today I will do some more. I want to get all three discussion posts written today and ready to post. Some things, like a pretest I have to take, I can not do until tomorrow when class officially starts. But everything else I can start on now. That is the plan. If I do that I should have a whole lot less stress about the work load.

Now I'm off to start my work.

Time Management

My new classes start on Monday. This time I'm taking two that are requiring a multimedia presentation at the end and one writing course that is four weeks long. I just created the calendars for them. I put all the assignments on a calendar for each class so I have a visual of what is due on what day. The idea behind it is that I can then prioritize my work. Except that is not what happens. I will look at the calendar and see nothing is due until the weekend so do nothing all week. That will not work anymore. These classes are getting harder and harder. I just read somewhere that each credit hour translates to 42 hours worth of work. I'm taking 9.5 credits, that's 399 hours over 12 weeks or ~33 hours a week. That is a lot of time. A. Lot. Of. Time. Let me break down my time in a week:

7 days = 168 hours
Work = 40 hours
Driving = 7.5 hours
Crossfit = 6 hours
Sleep = 56 hours

Leftover= 69.5 hours.

Now theoretically, I have plenty of time to do my work. Yet I spend approximately 70 hours a week goofing off. I watch TV, play games, do nothing. So it is time to master time management. I have tried to-do lists and they work okay providing I actually look at them again. I have tried setting up binders for my classes and putting everything in there. Again, it works okay providing I look at it. I find myself looking online more than at the binders. So I'm trying something a little bit different this time, with a kind of hybrid system. I have a binder that I have put some research in for a class. I also have a notebook for each class. Notes from the reading I'm doing go in the notebook, research goes in the binder. On the binder is a to-do list with the next steps. For example, the first thing is a discussion post that is due next weekend. I have outlined what I need to do for to be ready to write those. I will get them written and rewritten during the week and then I will submit them early. I have to stop waiting until the last minute to turn things in, hell to work on them. I always misjudge the amount of time something will take me. I need to get this weeks assignment done before the weekend, then spend the weekend working on next weeks assignment. It is what I tell my kids to do. I need to practice what I preach.

So the goal this quarter is time management.

Let the games begin

.

Today I did the first WOD in the Crossfit Open. 14.1 was a 10 min AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of 30 double unders and 15 snatches. My double unders are not great, before this WOD stringing 5 or 6 together was huge. During 14.1 I got 12 in a row and did 8 in a row a few times. When I was tired. That is huge. Really, really huge. People always say the don't do the open because they can't do the moves or they are not that competitive or whatever. This is a perfect example of that. I thought that the double unders would take me forever to get 30, but I did that. Twice. And almost 3 times. Then, some of the people who are really strong at my box, took forever to do their double unders. I scored higher than some of them because of the double unders. Amazing. Anyway, it's begun and for the next 5 weeks that's all we will be talking about. May the WODs be ever in your favor.

In other news, last night I did the final check in on the paleo challenge I was on. Lost 6 lbs of fat - yay - it was also my carb night for the new eating program I'm on. I had pizza - two huge slices- garlic knots, a margarita, and a brownie sundae. I was so incredibly full and sleepy. The weirdest thing happened though. When I first started eating I got cold. Like really, really super cold. Then I got really hot. It was like my body was using existing energy to digest all this unfamiliar food and when it realized there was a lot of it, my body lite the afterburners and I was dying I was so hot. Then I went to bed and slept like a baby. It was pretty awesome. But today it's back to ultra low carb for the next seven days. I'm already thinking about my next carb nite and what I might have.

Okay, enough of this. I need to eat some food. Clean up this room. Then start working on my school work, classes start on Monday :)

Leaderboard

Here I will keep track of my competition in the Crossfit Open. Can't wait to do the WOD tomorrow!!!!

Lazy Sunday

I have been on a Paleo challenge since January 15th. It has been okay, but not great. I found myself cheating frequently. I call it cheating because I am on a challenge. I know this is not a way I will eat forever, but you would think I could do it for 45 days. But that got me to thinking about paleo. With the level of exercise I do, I think I need some carbs. In my reading, I found this program that makes a lot of sense. It's called Carb Nite and it sounds pretty good. In short, you eat paleo all week and then eat carbs one night a week. For the first round, you have to go 10 days keeping your carbs low. Since I was on paleo and eating low carb anyway, it wasn't that big a leap to make. I started it on Wednesday and my first carb night will be on Friday, which also happens to be the last day of my challenge. I can not wait. I have been able to hold on knowing that I will get all I want in just a few days. I have some people who are doing it and they are having great success.

The point of this is that around day 4 you get really foggy. That was me yesterday. I was so foggy headed and lazy, it was unbelieveable. I could hardly focus on anything. I was tempted to give in and have some carbs, but I resisted. The folks who are doing it say that Day 4 is the absolute worst. They assured me that Day 5 would be a lot better, and they were right, it was. Today was a lazy day though. I just hung around, read, watched House of Cards, and was generally a bum. It felt nice. I'm sitting here watching another episode of House of Cards. I think it will be an early night. Just a lazy Sunday.