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I haven´t been writing for a while and I´m not sure if I remember all of it anymore, but I´ll try :D. I didn´t go to a lot of workouts so it shouldn´t be so hard.

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On the 5th of September I did the above workout. And I remember that I was really happy with it. I did it in 39.57 minutes if I recall correctly. I did knees to elbows instead of toes to bar. And I remember that one of the rounds I managed to do all 15 in one go and that felt so good!!

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Saturday september 7th we did a Hero workout “Manion”. Which is 7 rounds of 400m run and 29! back squats 135/95lbs.

I did the back squats with 20kg bar and 10lbs on either side so that´s about 30kg. I think. I´m not sure if I remember correctly. Maybe it was a 15kg bar. I think it was 20 though… We had a timecap too, but I´m not sure what it was.. I think 40 minutes. I think I did 4 rounds.. But I don´t really remember this one very well. I do know that I really tried to do my squats properly and that it was quite heavy haha.

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On the 9th of September I kind of screwed up. We started practising some technique for pistol squats and double unders. I managed to do 2 double unders in a row for the first time (until now I could only do one). After that we did Nancy: 5 rounds of a 400m run and 15 overhead squats. The overhead squat was a new move for me and it felt very awkward. Basically you hold the bar above your head with straight and locked arms. It feels like you´re over stretching them. You have to put pressure on (almost like you want to snap the bar) to make sure you don´t drop it. While keeping the bar up there you do squats (and feel like falling over :p). We did some practising with just a stick first and when it was time to do the wod I did it with a 15kg bar.

During round 2 I noticed my left arm had started sleeping. It slowed me down a bit because it was distracting. At some point I asked Rich if that is normal to happen and he said I shouldn´t worry about it. It didn´t hurt, so I continued. I don´t remember my time. We didn´t have a time cap so I did the full 5 rounds, but I didn´t look at the clock… The whole time my underarm and hand kept having the sleepy pins and needles feeling.

And this feeling never went away. I still have it now. It´s mostly only in my thumb now though. On Tuesday I went to the doctor and she sent me to the Neurologist on Wednesday. He told me I have a trapped nerve and to find out where it´s trapped I need to get an EMG scan. I´m getting that scan today. He also told me that I could do everything as normal as long as it doesn´t start hurting/gets worse. And it hasn´t gotten worse.. it doesn´t hurt. It´s just an annoying feeling. And to be sure I did decide to take it easy on the workouts. So I didn´t go to crossfit for a week.

Last Monday I finally went again. But I did skip on doing the Thrusters, as I didn´t want to have my arms overhead like that again before having my arm checked out properly.

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Instead I used that time to practise my double unders. And this time I got up to 4 in a row! Progress!!

We didn´t end up doing Annie as too many people showed up. Instead we did 16 minutes AMRAP in pairs of 20 double unders/2o situps while the other one did a medballwalk up the hill. So basically one is doing as many double unders/situps in the time that the other takes a medball and runs it up the hill and back. We started before I even realized so we forgot to get some chalk to write down our reps, but I think we did pretty good. I just did singles instead of double unders though. I had been practising it before and just wanted to get a good workout in instead of stumbling around with the double unders.

Then, yesterday I went again.

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We had a 36 minute time cap and I ended up doing 4 rounds in 36.5 minutes (with 10lbs ball). And now I feel completely worn out. This work out was so hard for some reason! I already had trouble getting through my reps in the first round. And during the first run I seriously thought about giving up because I struggled getting through it so much. But I kept going, albeit very slow. And when I finished my wall balls in the 4th round and the clock was on 35 minutes I considered of course to call it a day but ended up doing a sprint to try and make the run in the last minute anyway. So in the end I was happy with pushing through. But damn, do I feel it now! I haven´t felt this “empty” since the first week I started crossfit. It probably didn´t help that it was 30 degrees outside. But I think I could really feel that I haven´t done any sport really in the last week.

It´s been two months now since I started CrossFit and I´m still loving it. This month I don´t think I changed so much physically, but I can really feel the difference in my energy and strength. I did make some pictures the other day and I´ll post them later.

I really hope they can fix my sleepy thumb soon so I can stop worrying about it.

This Friday I fly to Holland for a 10 day holiday with my family. But I will be doing plenty of workouts there. I have a weekend at a waterpark, I am going to a Gladiator workout, doing a bootcamp training with a friend and at the end of the holiday I´m doing the Mudmasters MudRun, which is going to be such a fun challenge! I also want to check out the CrossFit box they have in my hometown :D. And in between I will relax and stuff my face with yummy Dutch snacks. I think this holiday will be a good one!! :D

WODs and Nutrition

Whupsie. I haven´t been updating properly.

Last week was a tough week for me. The WOD on Thursday (August 8) was again really hard for me. I struggled a lot last week.. not sure why. This week is going better though :). But lets go back to Thursday. The WOD was like this.

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It´s a “hero” WOD. We had a 40 minute time cap and I made it through .. wait.. I don´t remember!! I do remember that I only did 5 thrusters each time and that I did them (and the deadlifts) with 24.2kg (5kg less than the Rx). The first round I did 10 deadlifts, but changed that to 5 as well from the second round on. For me those (heavy) lifts are still very new to me and I don´t want to overdo it and hurt my back or something.

I think I did 3.5 rounds.. not 100% sure, but yea I think so.

Then, the beach WOD on Saturday. That one was really fun and hard. But fun. The WOD was run from one point to another (on soft sand) at about 30m distance. When there do 10 pushups and 10 squats. Run back and do 10 kb swings (8kg) and 10 burpees. Then run to the sea and go in up to your middle. Run back out to first point. That is one round and we had to do 10.

When everyone was long finished it was me and another Dutch guy that still had to do two full rounds. I don´t know how they can be so fast!!! They must be cheating :p.

After the WOD we went out for breakfast with some. They have been doing that for a few weeks now. When I used to come with Luke I couldn´t go as I had to drive him back to Calahonda, but now I can join :). And it´s the best breakfast ever! It´s at a place called Pan y Mermelada in Marbella and I don´t know how their breakfasts normally are, but they have a special “CrossFit” breakfast, which basically means you can get anything and everything for €12. Sandwiches, veggies, fruit salades, fruit juices, coffee, pancakes, bacon, more fruit, more veggies, more yummies. It´s delicioso!

Anyway, back to the WOD´s. This week I started going on Monday as well. On Monday the WOD was like this.

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The squats I worked up from 20kg to in the last three rounds 43kg. I kind of last my form in the last round though.. didn´t go all the way down with my squat. I was afraid I wouldn´t be able to get back up again!! I think I can do heavier though.. If I don´t have to do 6 reps :p. Should try it next time. The walking lunches I did with 2kb swings of 8kg.

After that it was 3 rounds for time of kb swings and runs. (More running!!! GRRRR!!) I wanted to take the 8kg kettlebell again, but they convinced me to take 12kg. Which, when trying out, I had a hard time with from the first go. Butttt, I did manage!! In the end I did 90 kb swings of 12kg and 3 400m runs in 14:58 minutes! It felt awesome!!

Then.. yesterday..!

When you see this on the wall you know it´s time to be scared!

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He called it the Tamburello. As Luke Tamburello (one of the box members) turned 30 yesterday. Hah! Let´s hope nobody turnes 40, 50 or 60 soon ;). In 35 minutes I got up to 18 wall balls. I did real push ups (instead of from the knees) for the first time in a WOD and made it through all 30 almost in one go :D. Box jumps I did 20″. Pull ups with black band.

I found the roll outs really hard.

BB Roll Out

You´re supposed to roll out all the way to a vertical position, but I can´t come back up when I try that. So I just go about halfway and pull back.

Double unders I don´t know how to do yet (they´re rope jumps where you jump once but the rope goes under twice) so I did 60 single jumps instead. And I did all of them in one go as well, which made me happy. The handstand pushups I did from a box. Basically you put your toes on the box and make sure your body is in 90 degrees so your upper body is straight up in the air and your legs are vertical. Then try and push up.

Handstand push up from box

Looks easy. Is not easy.

Sit ups were a piece of cookie (because a cookie is so much nicer than cake). The kb swings I did with 8kg (yah I know I should have taken the 12kg but trust me after doing all those other things my arms were already like jelly). Then the friggin burpees, which always make me dizzy. The push press is something I had never done before. I did them with 2 kettle bells of 8kg. It was quite heavy!! I had to do reps of 5 so I spent a lot of time on it.

DB push press

There was 1 minute left on the clock when I started the wall balls. I used a 10lbs ball and got 18 in there when the time was up.

It was a very nice workout!!

Today I´m feeling it though. Happy that I have a rest day ;). Tomorrow I´m going again. Today it´s one month since I started. I made some pics on the first day and some this morning as well. Maybe I´ll post a comparison picture later. Although I don´t think there is much difference to be seen yet.

I wanted to post something about my food habits as well. But don´t have time!! Will try and update soon!

WOD 6 August 2013

It´s full on summer here in Spain now and it´s crazy hot because of it. I think that´s why I really struggled yesterday. I think on paper this WOD wasn´t as hard as some of the other ones I did, but I struggled a lot with it.

The workout was 21 minutes ascending ladder of

Burpees
Kettlebell swings (I used 8kg)
Handstand pushups
Box Jumps (20 inch)
Pull ups

We started with 2 reps of each and the ascending ladder means that every round you add 2 more reps. So first round is 2 of each, second round is 4 of each, etc.

I substituted the handstand pushups for wall climbs. And because wall climbs are a bit more straining we started them with 1 and then add 1 every round. But even that turned out to be too hard for me.

I really struggled a lot this workout. Black spots.. out of breath. Dripping sweat.

I did a total of 6 rounds, but I didn´t multiply to wall climbs. I just did one of them each time. I couldn´t handle more :( (I should really practice the hand stand!!). So in the end I did a total of 6 wall climbs and a total of 42 of each of the other movements.

After finishing the workout we got 3 minutes of rest and then had to run 1 mile, which was 4 laps around the building.

I thought I would be ok on the run as I´ve been practising running for a while now, but it was horrible! I started out too fast so I burnt out after the first lap and had to walk a short bit on every lap after that. The first lap I came in as one of the fastest, but in the end I was the last one to finish. Lesson learned ;).

I switched to another time. I used to go at 7pm as I went straight after work. But this week I moved apartments and I now live much closer to the box. So now I go home first and go to CrossFit at 8pm. It´s a bit quieter at 8pm so I think it´s nicer (7pm class is always fully booked with usually some extra people there as well). But it felt so much hotter today than last week. Not sure if the temperature is so much different or if it just gets more hot in there every hour. Because then I might switch back to 7pm :p.

WOD 25 July 2013

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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