Month: July 2013

WOD 30 July 2013

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Progress!!

Yesterday, for the first time after a crossfit workout, I didn´t feel like absolute crap. Don´t get me wrong. I feel great right after a work out. I feel on top of the world for getting through it haha! But usually when I get home I´m so completely exhausted that I just eat and go to bed. But yesterday, even though it was a hard workout, I felt quite good throughout the evening. I even had the energy to watch a movie!

I think my body is slowly getting used to the intensity of the workouts and recovering more quickly :). Feels good! I feel like I could actually do another workout today! But I won´t… ;).

Yesterday the WOD was Barbara. One of “the girls”.

Which means 5 rounds of 20 pull ups, 30 push ups, 40 sit ups and 50 squats. In between the rounds you have to take a 3 minute break.

If you count that up it means 100 pull ups, 150 push ups, 200 sit ups and 250 squats!! Wowza!!!

We had a 48 minute time cap. I did the pull ups with a purple band, which is ridiculously thick. Too thick for me, I almost fly through the roof using it. But all the black bands were taken, so it was either the too thick purple band or the too thin green band. And since I figured this workout would be hard enough I chose for the thick one. I´m happy I did, because I´m 100% sure I wouldn´t have been able to finish if I had used the green band. I don´t think I can do more than 5 pull ups in a row with the green band.. let alone 5 rounds of 20. The push ups I did from the knee.

And these were my times.

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As you can see it´s not so easy to do calculations when you´re out of breath haha. I tried to write down the time it took me to do the round (excluding the 3 min waiting time) but I obviously had trouble counting. I think, if my ability to count has come back to me these are the correct times.

Round 1  5 min 15 sec
Round 2 5 min 57 sec
Round 3 6 min 58 sec
Round 4 7 min 7 sec
Round 5 5 min 54 sec

It is funny to see that I was so much faster in my last round than the round before. Knowing it´s the last just gives you that little extra energy you need :).

But what it comes down to is that it took me a total of 43 min 11 sec to do the workout. This includes the 4x 3 min rest.

I´m looking forward to tomorrow´s WOD!! :D

 

Beach WOD 27 July 2013

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For the first time I really didn´t feel like going. It takes a lot of will power to get up at 7am on a Saturday morning to drive half an hour to a work out :p. But I was happy I went anyway. It was a short workout compared to the one we had last week on the beach. This time we got divided into two groups (of twelve) and there were 5 stations placed around the beach (with a little bit of running distance between them). Everyone in the group had to do all exercises on all stations, but you weren´t allowed to continue to the next station until everyone in the group was finished. If you were fast you had to wait in a plank position until all members of the group were done with the exercise.

The exercises were:

15 hand stand pushups (one of your team mates would keep your feet up)
10 bear walks (walk using both hand and feet)
30 jump overs (jump over another teammate crouching or lying down)
40 burpees
50 sit ups

That was one round. And we had to do two.

The hand stand push ups were surprisingly easy, mostly because my partner pretty much just pulled me up haha.

I absolutely hated the bear walks. They were awful. Almost as bad as the frog jumps. Before we started it was set to do 20 of them. But after doing 1 bear walk I think the coaches realized it would be too much so luckily they changed it to 10.

The rest of the exercises were quite easy. It´s just hard to do so many of them, in the sand.

I felt a little bad after this WOD though. Because our team was faster than the other team so we “won”. But I cheated a little bit. On the bear walks I didn´t do ten when we moved onto the next round. I gave into peer pressure. I was a bit behind when everyone was already in plank waiting for me. And they wrongly assumed it was my last walk, even though I was only on my 8th, but I was too self conscious to correct them.

Afterwards I felt really bad and I definitely won´t be cheating from now on anymore! They will just have to wait for me. Or help me out, because that was also allowed, if one team member struggles keeping up, another team member can help out by doing more (so I could have done 8 and someone else 12 for example).

I think of all WOD´s up till now this was my least favourite. But that´s mostly because I felt like a big cheater afterwards.

WOD 25 July 2013

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Another tough workout. We had a 40 minute cap to do the above.

I did the kettle bell swings with 8kg. I think I can do heavier, but I don´t trust my technique yet and don´t want to get back troubles or anything. So rather keep the weights a bit low until I get used to these exercises. Besides, I have enough trouble getting through an exercise like this without the weight hehe. The sumo dead lift I did with 16kg.

I wasn´t able to finish the complete three rounds..

This is how far I got.

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So, that´s two rounds of each exercise and then 21 more box jumps, 20 kettle bell swings and 5 burpees.

I had the most trouble getting the pull ups done (I didn´t do them till the chest btw, just the normal chin over bar). My arms would be so tired at this point that I struggled getting up. Even though I used the black band.

Box jumps weren´t easy either. I had two times when I made the mistake of not jumping both feet at the same time and almost falling face down, because I didn´t lift my feet high enough. I guess that´s what you get for trying to cheat haha. It always surprised me when I do the box jumps though, because before the first jump it really seems impossible to me to even get one done. I don´t know the height I did them on. The box has 3 ways you can put it and I did it on the lowest possible. Which is probably not 20 inch, but a little lower.. maybe 18 inch (45cm)..

The burpees give me the most trouble breathing-wise and feeling faint. I think it´s because of the going down on the ground and all the way back up in so many repetitions. Not good for the heart :p.

I think I would have managed to finish it though, if there wasn´t a time cap. I just need too much time to catch my breathe sometimes. But hopefully in some time those breaks will get shorter and shorter :).

I tried to take a picture of my “workplace” afterwards, but I was shaking so badly I wasn´t able to get it sharp lol.

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WOD 23 July 2013

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PFFFFF!!

Last night´s WOD was a tough one. It was hard to do it and I felt it after twice as hard. I love how it feels when you finish though. There´s something strangely satisfying about lying in a pool of sweat and knowing that you have done more than you thought you could.

The WOD started with a warm up of 4 sets of 20 squats and 10 push ups. I did the push ups from the knees.

After this we did 10-8-6-4-2 sets of toes to bar (I did knees to shoulders) and ring dips. Both were new exercises for me.

Toes to bar
You hang from a bar and move your toes up until they reach the bar.

Knees to shoulders is a bit easier for rookies like me.

Ring dips
This video shows what they are. I did the first example ´static ring dips´ and they were hard enough.

After a few I had trouble getting up properly, let alone holding it there for a little while. But the instructor helped me out by holding the rings together (because that´s basically what happens, you move your arms to the side when you can´t hold it) and made me hold position for a looooong time. I can tell you, you feel that in your core!!

So, when we were finished with that I was already sweating and shaking. But the real WOD had yet to start.

It was one of “the girls” with an extra touch. Rich, the box owner, called it Crazy Karen:

150 wall balls with (in my case) 2 clean & jerks every minute on the minute. Again, two exercises I had never heard of.

Wall balls
The movement begins as a front squat and follows through to a push press/shove that sends the ball up and forward to the target from which it rebounds back to the throwers outstretched arms where it is “absorbed” back into the squat. In its entirety the wall-ball is quite simply a throw.

Clean & Jerk
A lift in which a weight is raised from the floor to shoulder height, held there briefly, and then pushed overhead in a rapid motion of the arms.

So basically you start in a squat position with the weight on the floor. you pick it up and stand up with it while taking it to the shoulder. Then, while standing straight straighten your arm so you’re holding the weight above your head. I did it single arm (so one weight at a time) with a 8lbs (3.7kg) weight.

The exercise meant (I was very confused with it at first) that you start of with the wall balls then on every minute you stop to do the two clean & jerks and then as quickly as possible continue with the wall balls. Time stops when you finished 150 wall balls. So start with wall balls, when the clock hits 1 minute you do 2 clean & jerks, continue with wall balls, when clock hits 2 minutes do the 2 clean & jerks and so on. So, the faster you do the clean & jerks the more time you will have for your wall balls.

I did the wall balls with a 10lbs (4.6kg) ball. And I have to admit that not every throw went over the line (there is a line drawn on the wall and the ball is supposed to hit the wall above it). I also lost count a couple of times so I’m pretty sure I cheated on the count as well. Just not sure if it was in my favor or not. But my time was 13m39 seconds.

And after that I felt like I could rule the world!

Didn’t last long though. Later in the evening, after dinner, I felt horrible. So tired! But I couldn’t sleep either. I felt dehydrated, even though I had been drinking a lot. So much so that I had to go to the toilet pretty much every hour throughout the night. This morning I still felt really worn out. But during the day it got much better.

But now I feel a bit worse again. I have a lot of pain in my ear. I think it’s a mild ear infection. I tried scuba diving the weekend before last and had some trouble clearing. Had some trouble with my ear ever since and now it’s complaining about it I think. I hope it will feel better tomorrow.

Now it’s time for an early sleep (it’s not even 22:30 yet).

Buenas noches!

Beach WOD 20 July 2013

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It was awesome!

It was so nice to work out at the beach. So different from a work out in a sweaty box, haha. There were a lot of people too! I think we were with at least 20.

The exercises were all team exercises. We got divided into groups of 4 (2 boys, 2 girls) and the goal was to complete each station with your group.

The stations were:

  • Run while carrying a team member (10x)
  • Human wheel barrel (10x)
  • Frog leaps (10x)
  • Walking overhead lunches (10x)
  • Drag rope with dumbbel (10x)
  • Dumbbel swings (200x)

I think all the distances for doing things were about 20m (10 one way and then back). So one time back and forth counted as 1 rep. And you had to do 10 reps with the total team so not 10 each. And you also didn’t have to divide it equally. So for the carrying another member part I didn’t have to carry my very tall and muscly partner, he just carried me 5 times, haha.

Before we got to start on those we first had to run on the soft sand to warm up. After that everyone had to run across the shore to a certain spot, from there jump in the water and swim up to a cone and back and then run back and start with the above stations.

I think all in all it took us about 50 minutes to complete everything. And afterwards it was so nice to just jump into the sea again to cool down!

It was hard though.. our group started with the frog leaps, which were horrible right from the start. And doing everything in soft sand doesn’t really make it easier. Then we did the dumbbel stuff, which was the easiest of all of them I think. The ‘run while carry a team member’ wasn’t so hard for me either, because I was the one getting carried all the time. But the next station… the human wheel barrel. That was so hard!!

Human wheel barrel:
wheelbarrow-w-o-wheel

Beside the fact that i was just very heavy to do it was also very painful for the wrists. Not nice!! I was glad when these were over.

Our last station were the overhead lunches. I kind of like lunches, but as it was our last station and we were already really tired it was quite a struggle to get through them.

But we did!

I do feel a bit worn out now. I had a very little sleep last night. I was sleeping at my sisters place and it was soooo hot and noisy in her guestroom. I just could not relax. In the end I moved down to the livingroom and slept on the couch. Not ideal..

But I took a nap after the workout this morning and just had some food and can already feel my energy getting back up. Which is a good thing, because I’m going Stand Up Paddling this afternoon!

But ya, loved this beach WOD. Will definitely be going every Saturday!!

Group pic taken after the workout :)
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WOD 17 July 2013

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I was so tired after last nights session that I didn´t even have the energy to post an update. It was crossfit, drive home, quick cooldown in the pool, dinner and straight to bed.

My body is hurting all over. It was bad yesterday, but today it feels worse. I woke up a couple of times last night feeling horrible. And this morning was hell to get up and ready for work. I guess it´s just my body needing to get used to these kind of exercises, but I hope it won´t always feel like this after a workout, because honestly, I feel like crap!

Good thing I have two resting days now before I go to the next session on Saturday morning. Which will be at the beach!!

Yesterday we did 5 sets of 5 deadlifts + 5 chin ups.  My sets:

15kg bar
1st set: + 2x 10 lbs (24.2kg)
2nd set: + 2x 20lbs (33.4kg)
3rd set: + 2x 30lbs (42.6kg)
4th set: + 2x 30lbs
5th set: + 2x 20lbs

The last one I did with less weights because the girl I shared the bar with took them off and I was too lazy to put them back on :p. And I did struggle a bit with my breathing at this point. I have trouble breathing properly when I do lifts like this. I fainted once, while doing a workout in a normal gym. I went to the doctor after it and it turns out I have a minor heart condition and they thought it caused my fainting. But I´m actually starting to think it´s just because of my breathing. Because I never have problems doing cardio or any other exercises. It´s just when I try to use weights…

Anyway, for the chin ups (after every set of 5 deadlifts we did 5 chinups) I started of using a green band, which is much, much thinner than the black band, but I didn´t see another one available. The exercise was to get up normally, but go down in 4 seconds, so very slowly, so you use your strength on the way down. I could get up 2 or 3 times the normal way but for the last 2 I had to use the box to jump up. After 3 sets I discovered a free black band and used that one for the last 2 sets and had no problems getting up.

After this it was an AMRAP (As Many Repetitions As Possible) in 15 minutes of:

1 wall walk

9 sit ups

7 burpees

8 overhead lunches

The wall walk you start lying on the ground facing the floor, with your feet against the wall. Then you push up and start walking up the wall with your feet and move your hands as close to the wall as you can. Effectively getting to a handstand position. After that you walk back down.

Sit ups are.. sit ups.

For burpees you can find an explanation on the Lingo page. I think it´s the move that everyone hates.. it takes up a lot of energy as you have to go down all the way to the ground and jump up again.

Overhead lunches are lunches with a weight held above your head. Like this:

I used a 10lbs (4.6kg) weight.

I managed to do 5 rounds + up to the 5th burpee in the last round. So 5 rounds + 15 movements.

I had to stop a lot of times to catch my breath during this workout. I don´t know if it was because I was already a bit worn out from the exercise before or if it´s just a hard workout. Probably both ;).

I have to say.. I started this post in the morning and finishing it in the afternoon. And I feel so much better now. This morning everything was aching and I felt so tired and worn out. Now, after a couple of hours and a nice walk to the beach during my lunch break I feel much better. Still have some aches here and there, but I´m already starting to look forward to the next WOD!

I really do wonder what we´re going to do on the beach. I just hope it doesn´t involve a lot of running on soft sand!

PS: This AMRAP was called Maria, not because it´s one of the official “Girls”, but because it was Maria (a member of CrossFit Marbella) her  birthday.

Whups!

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I got my first war mark! Looks like I got a tiny little bruise from holding the weight-bar against my collarbone. If you look closely, you might see it :p.

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Other than that.. OMG at the soreness! Yesterday I didn´t feel anything, but last night, after I went for a run, suddenly BAM! muscle ache all over my body!

About that run.. I know this is a CrossFit blog, but at the same time that I´m embarking on this CrossFit journey I´m also trying to be able to run 10km in one go. Which is going to be so, so hard. I´m still struggling to finish a 5km run at the moment. I can do it, but it´s very very hard. Yesterday I ran exactly 5km. I didn´t stop to walk at any time but my pace was very slow.

2013-07-17_1520

I really need to practise more. But with the heat here in Southern Spain it´s starting to be difficult to find the energy to go for it.

I still need to update the ´About´ page, but the main reason I want to be able to run 10km (and also one of the reasons that I started CrossFit) is that I signed up for a mud race in September. It´s a 12km run, parts of it through heavy mud, with military-style obstacles throughout. It looks like a lot of fun, but it also looks very difficult! So, I definitely need to be fitter than I am now to not die while trying to finish it ;). More info on the mud race can be found here.

WOD 15 July 2013

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Why was I so nervous? I could have known it would be fun!

First we had to do back squats in reps of 5-5-5-3-3.

I did them with a 20kg bar:

5: + 2x10lbs (29,2kg total)
5: + 2x15lbs (33,8kg total)
5: + 2x20lbs (38,4kg total)
3: + 2x25lbs (43kg total)
3: + 2x25lbs (43kg total)

I didn’t dare to try 30 lbs as I was already having a hard time completing 3 reps of 25lbs.

(It is a bit annoying that some of these weights have the weight in kg on them and some in lbs.)

Then it was on to FRAN. If you do it properly you should do the thrusters with 65lbs (30kg) as a female. But I did it with 15kg.

What are thrusters? They are squats with a weight on your chest and as you come up you push the weight up with your arms stretched above your head.

 

Like that.

So, it was 21 of those, then 21 pull ups, which I did with a black band. The band helps people like me, who can’t do pull ups without a little help. There are bands in different sizes of thickness. The thicker the band the more it helps you. I think the black band is the thickest. When you start with it it feels like it almost shoots you through the ceiling! But trust me, after a couple of repetitions, even with the band it’s hard to keep going.

After the first 21 of each you do it all again but then 15 times and then again 9 times. For time. My time was 10m13sec.

For some reference. They say you did a good job if you book under 5 minutes. With twice the weight I had.

But for me, as a rookie, I think I did ok :).

We all have to start somewhere

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Today is my official start as a crossfit rookie. I have signed up at my local box for a one-month-unlimited subscription and plan on going 3 days a week, starting today.

I have tried a crossfit workout two times, to see if it would be something I could do. I loved it both times! So now it´s time to really get into it and start working out regularly.

But to say that I am intimidated is an understatement. When I look at the WOD that is waiting for me this evening I´m already worried about not being able to finish it. Or about taking foreeeeeeever, while the other people are long done.

But, everyone has to start somewhere, and I´m starting here. Today. With FRAN. Which apparently involves thrusters and pull ups. I have no idea what the first is and I know for a fact that I can´t do the second. So it should be fun! ;)