Self Made Masterpiece in Upper Body Strength, ROAR

WOD 3.24.14

Today was overhead squats, lots of them, yippee-kye-aye-aye! I sometimes tend to shy away from these shoulder-killing monsters, but end up feeling a lot of LOVE for them in the end. NOT too much love, but just a teaser to leave me coming back for more. And just like the snatch, the OHS is incredibly empowering; it’s one way to make this shorty feel more giant-like. 

I started my workout:

500M row
500M (ish) run
3X

20 Weighted lunges (with 25# plate overhead) 
x4

10 OHS (here we go!) 65#
15 push ups on the bosu ball (the half one)
20 V-Ups
x 5

10 Kettlebell swings 26# 
10 Kettlebell snatches 20#
Weighted sit ups with 26# KB
x2 (I might have done more, but I was in a daze at this point & they were getting pretty sloppy)

I realized while doing the KB work that my shoulders were not agreeing with my decision to work on KB sntaches. The lunges, OHS & KB work was too much & I felt week & in bad form. ROokie mistakes.  

A pic of me doing OHS a couple years ago (inside the box)

ROARING Out of The Box, Shrinking Boobs & Heavy(ish) Power Cleans

Out of the Box…This girl’s journey without crossfit, Hollar! I'm going rogue. My hybrid, semi custom- made workouts without the box. 3.2.1 go

Today at the gym included shrinking boobs, heavy-ish power cleans and a stench of major proportions. My morning began at the early 4 am hour. WTH is going on here, almost two hours premature, and wide awake, all be, even my alarm is offended. Either way, made it to the car and I'm good as gold.

So when I did make it to the dungeon gym at Colorado Athletic Club (which I have come to have a mutually loving relationship with) I started off strong, forgetting to stretch, yet AGAIN. Hopefully it never bites me in the arse with an injury, neh.  Lately, I have been starting with a bang, running upstairs in the midget track and adding rowing or kettlebells.

 But wait, what about the shrinking boobs  you ask? Right, let’s get down to business.

After the warm up, I headed to the barbell, YAY. I love you barbell, you rock my world. Unfortunately my usual work station is facing a mirror which gives one way too much vanity time. Today, this vanity time let me see that my particular semi-voluptuous nature seemed to be suffering from shrinkage. What can testosterone do to you? I crush you estrogen dominance, muah ha. What was once a T & A body has now evolved towards an A body with um, tic tacs. (Tic Tacs and Ass??) As I am trying to focus on my lifts I am distracted by this epiphany, but aspiring to be the humble badas I want to be, I push on.
What we have here is my WOD:

8 rounds
3 power cleans (95lbs)
9 push ups
9 air squats

My lifts felt strong today and my face felt gloriously sweaty, success! Back to the minus T issue, I have been thinking of how I could make a deal with the devil to save my bouncy girls; What would I give the devil to trade? My cocker spaniel? But as the shock has worn off, I realize I am making peace with whatever my body needs to do. Besides,  there’s always surgery right? Hehe, that’s not at all drastic.

My workout ended with a short trip the rower just for one last hurrah before my departure.  This is where I made one hell of a mistake. Never, ever do this  when you are in the company of others. I removed  my IPOD arm band, (I just squinted remembering this) Yes. I did that. And I know of one lucky personal trainer who also partook in the heavenly aroma. Oh the stench of sweaty balls. Yes, that's what a few weeks (months?) worth of arm sweat added up to. So now I know I should be washing that naughty arm band more often.  OK, we covered power cleans, boobs and stench.  Stay tuned for a joke on my next post. Until then, send the devil my way, will ya?

The first date (with the CF Open)

Ah. The start of the Cross fit Open! The process has begun to  identify (and seriously congratulate) the "fittest woman and man on earth". It was an exciting day today, driving to the 6am work out at Front Range Crossfit. 

I woke up this morning at 5:30am, almost a full 12 hours after the first Cross fit Open workout had posted to notify almost 50,000 people what WOD (work out of the day) would be completed for the first of five weekly challenges. Definitely, I woke up with a fire lit under my ass (oh so warm), because I had no problem getting out of bed. Special events can do that for you.

So I would say today was the first date, and next week is the 2nd date and then comes the relationship also known as regionals. And only a very elite few will move onto marriage, (good thing I'm very married) I don't plan to make it past the Open, but the competitive spirit has been sprinkled upon me since I first clicked submit on my $20 entry fee. The spirit also brings with it some massive butterflies in my gut... Here we go!!

So in review of my first date with the open, I would say I had a good time. It was short and semi-sweet with seven LONG minutes of very proper burpees. In seven minutes, I performed 82 burpees which included a six inch jump at the end. Also, I decided because I completed the workout at the 6am class that I should get an additional 10% added to my score, so I took it nice and easy today. That and also because I drove through un-plowed snow (and uphill, barefoot with no coat!) to this first date, that I could take another 10% addition- I'm rocking this so far. That might even earn a good-night kiss :)

How many burpees can you do in 7 minutes? Huh, you don't know this? WTH? Give it a go...3-2-1 go

PR's...Ready, Set, Go!

So I have begun to realize that I am intimidated by two things revolved around workouts:
1. Early mornings and 2.Scary Front Range Cross Fit WODS (workout of the day)!

It's funny how much free time I used to have for working out, and I usually took advantage. Of course that was the pre-baby days before I had to stop focusing so much on just me, me and me. Before my baby girl Juliet,  life was such a breeze. I could compare it to eating cake.

Pre-baby = cake eating
Post baby=eating a juicy filet minion
While both are enjoyable, one can sustain you much much longer!

Since the creation of my little lady Juliet, I have had a priority shift in my time management. Workouts continue to remain very high on my list of needs as they fit right in with water, food and love. Trust me, one does not want to be around me when I don't work out.  Non worked out Steph brings out the devil in me (just ask my dear hubbo, who can testify to this).

In the most recent couple of months, sleep has began to quietly seep into that list of things I have to do. This priority change has placed a huge damper on my workouts. My usual crossfit time is 6am, which requires not only a 520am alarm clock (oh, how I do NOT love thee) but also an early morning breast feeding session for the little Kinzer baby. And believe me, any other time for work outs just doesn't happen, what with the chaos that ensues later in the day. OK for cheesy purposes, lets just call that our family time. So, it's 6am or it's a bust & that's a huge guilt producing delima currently. To be honest, it requires a bedtime of 930pm, which is difficult for me.

This recent prioritization of sleeping habits has come from two relatively reliable sources: Marks Daily Apple (web site) and Lights Out, the book. Both which say, it is better to get more sleep & get a short workout in later in the day rather than getting up early & sleeping less than 8 hours. There are so many reasons our bodies need more sleep, mostly regarding hormones and oh...small things like diabetes and heart disease! All of which just so happen to make an absolutely dreamy excuse to reach over with my naughty right arm & turn off that alarm clock.

Hence, I have fallen short lately on my cross fit workouts, so much so that if I go this seldom it's not worth the monthly debit from my bank account to pay for me just LOOKING at the WODS online. This is the point my oh-so-logical husband mentioned the other night & sent me on a rage. Ah! the truth HURTS, especially when I was fuming in the wrong direction (at him for saying it) instead of myself with this bastard right arm (see, I already told you about my devilish tendencies when I'm not working out). Thank goodness I picked a forgiving spouse, and I say this with my most perfect toothy innocent smile.

This brings me to point #2, scary WODSs. Case in point: This morning's WOD:

Three rounds:

20 burpees

30 wall-ball shots (14lbs)

But just for the record, I did go to crossfit this morning - (thanks, I did pat myself on the back already) I think it was some sort of karma for sleeping in lately because only 3 of us total went for this punishment. But even scarier than today was a couple of weeks ago when we attempted to uncover our max snatch (btw, have you warmed up your snatch lately?) And for some reason, be it my lack of barbell confidence when weights are over my head or just that I am a total wimp; I am afraid of the snatch. Yep, I said it. And my max weight showed it, only 75 pounds. yikes. And a real jab to the ego took place when I was told a prego crossfitter snatched 110pounds.

So, more recently, when we had another max lift day, I decided it was game on. I came fully hydrated, ready to rock and well fueled after a prior night's paleo dinner. It was game on, ready set go! Which leads into the name of this post: PR's and FR's. What is an FR you should ask? It means first record and it takes place when you don't have a prior weight to beat, it is also totally made up for this blog post my good friend. So I went to uncover my FR's on the following:

Overhead Squat - 90lbs

Front Squat - 150lbs

Back Squat - 175lbs

and I feel pretty good about that level of strength! I sure hope I can grow from there. Not only did I score some "way-to-go's" but I left with quite the ego boost! Thank you Crossfit for all the fun!

Mercury Retro - Not So Great!

Retrograde Mercury is an astrological signature for Murphy's Law ("If something can go wrong, it will"),
Computers crash,  there are unexpected glitches, traffic jams ensue, telephone service snarls up, letters get lost on the mail, machinery breaks down, new projects fail miserably. Ah, yes, the trickster Mercury is up to his old pranks again.

Personally, I do believe in astrology and all that jazz, but don't call me a fanatic, I don't live my life by the stars, I usually only gain an little understanding of myself and others with the info. Aquarius' are usually like this. I don't read my horoscope daily because there are too many sources to try to assimilate. Most of them can be categorized as nin-compoop! However, from my experience there is something that I think we all should pay attention to. It is something that happens usually 3-4 times per calendar year and is well worth noting.

Here is what I found to somewhat explain what Mercury Retrograde is. Even if you write down the mercury dates of the current year just for kicks, I promise you will be amazed. I guarantee you will notice the effects yourself without any arm twisting or hocus-pocus talks of aliens, ghosts, or spirits to convince you.

When Mercury is Retrograde

Sometimes the other planets appear to be traveling backward through the zodiac; this is an illusion. We call this illusionretrograde motion.

Mercury's retrograde periods can cause our plans to go awry. However, this is an excellent time to reflect on the past. Intuition is high during these periods, and coincidences can be extraordinary.

When Mercury is retrograde, remain flexible, allow time for extra travel, and avoid signing contracts. Review projects and plans at these times, but wait until Mercury is direct again to make any final decisions. (QUOTED FROM ALMANAC.COM)

My own personal cases in point:
1) Our flight to Minnesota was cancelled
2) Cancelled a stroller walk with play date due to a sudden sickness
3) Tried to call pediatrician today and the call was disconnected 3 times and then the woman at office could not hear me
4) Contractor was scheduled to come out for estimate today & had to reschedule. All contractors have this flakey reputation, but I am still proving my point here so bear with me
5) Texted my Dad to confirm our weekly tennis and never heard back (that one is very odd because I still haven't heard back and it's two days later)

Historically, mercury retrograde was going on in October 2008 during the big stock crash as well as during the Presidential election of 2000 when the Florida voting was messed up & Bush won the election.

Thyroid, schey-moid, who needs it?

For almost the last two years there has been a new diagnosis in my medical chart, Hypothyroid or more specifically, hashimotos. Sounds so very Asian and almost warrior-like when you put it like that. But there is absolutely nothing warrior like to this aparent auto-immunite disease. Instead of benefiting from my hard working thyroid hormones, my body rejects it like it is an enemy invader. WTF.

All I know is, my Mom had her thyroid removed before "they" thought it was worth anything (guess the good ol docs thought it was a spare part?), my oldest sister has been taking thyroid meds since I can remember knowing what medicine was and my other sister just got diagnosed with a goiter, (an ugly word for an equally ugly lump). Oh heck, even my Dad was told to take synthroid for his slightly low-level hypothyroidism recently. A double fucke to me much? Can you spell G-E-N-E-T-I-C?

I started to take thyroid meds in October 2009; against by better self after the following systems were drop kicking me in the face
1) Hair falling out RAPIDLY, I mean that I clogged the drain everytime I showered and I barely had enough hair to put in a pony-tail.
2) Couldn't get prego (AKA infertility) this one was the MAIN reason though I didn't really believe it would work until I saw that little plus sign 3 months after starting to swallow the little white pill.
3) Sheer exhaustion - Tiredness never felt so tired. I wanted to go to bed at 8pm and people made fun of me when I couldn't keep my eyes open for family events that lasted longer
4) Mood swings - Well...I don't know if I can blame my thyroid for this one, I think I'm just moody all the time, I blame my X chromosome and anything else that pleases me.
5) No eyebrows and eyelashes barely there- This two things are devastating to a woman. I would rather be a hairy beast that had to endure daily waxing rather than not have any eyebrows/lashes.
6) Weight gain - Despite working out 1-2 hours a day and never eating fast food and being an overall healthy eater, the weight was slowly adding on. And this face does not look good with the extra poundage! I am not one of those that can hide extra weight like my blessed hubby.

Those are the major ones that made them self evident, imagine what else was going on inside this human figure! Memory loss, rapid aging, neuro- stuff that I don't even being to understand. Let me just say that the thyroid is like the gas pedal in your car, you need it to get anywhere!

What does make me awfully suspicious is the rapid rate at which it seems every woman is getting diagnosed as hypothyroid. I don't trust Dr's to begin with, so this only keeps me squinting in suspicious thoughts. Don't even get me started on them saying I will never get off thyroid meds for the rest of my life. I believe I was made whole and perfect and by messing with my body unnaturally - a whole new set of ramifications are lining up to punch me in the face later.

The one hope I have is that I was once told that acupuncture helped to cure a woman who had been taking the thyroid meds her whole life. I have no idea if this person was 60 years of 6 days old...but it sounds like a long time when you word it like that!

Signing off and hoping for a CURE and not just a gay cover up to the symptoms!