Claudia's Weekend Update

Saturday's Workout:

While the other Austin CrossFitters were throwing-down at a garage somewhere, Alyssa and I had our own really early (6:30 AM) throw-down on a track. Melissa was there in spirit. :-) Went like this:

warm-up

50 push ups
50 box jumps -I had to sub step-ups due to tendonitis :(
50 DB floor wipers
50 Thrusters
50 KB swings (16 kg)
800 m Run -- I had to sub 50 KB clean & press w/ 16 kg.

plus some silent trash talking to some women doing some in-place marching for a workout? what???

Alyssa was a trooper and we BOTH decided that I was NOT a workout Nazi.

Apology:

Big Mike has apologized for ditching us at the previous weekend's workout. He has generously offered to teach only our team a 2 hour minimum olympic weightlifting clinic. During the whole clinic he will be encouraging, positive and smile a lot. Then he is going to cook us a fabulous breakfast, as featured on his SICFIT cooking show. Then he will give us all 1 hour massages and trigger point because our muscles will be sore from all the olympic lifting. Okay, he really only agreed to the first one, but I'm negotiating the other two.

Natural Deoderant:

In a previous blog, Alyssa put up a recipe(?) for making natural deoderant. She was sweet enough to make me some. I have tested it and so far can report no stink. I am trying to get one of my co-workers/friends to give me a true unbiased opinion. But so far no takers on smelling my armpits. IT'S FOR SCIENCE PEOPLE!!! I'll keep you updated.

Pull-ups:

Seven weeks of practice and I can report that they still suck!!! So clearly, I am pull-up challenged and will be spending my Spartan Challenge cursing that metal bar and my non-pulling hard enough arms for 20 minutes. :-) Fortunately, since I'll be on the pull-up bar for so long no one will know that my push ups are just as sucky. :-)

That's all I've got. Good luck to everyone on Saturday. You can find me flailing around on the pull up bar. Good times for all!!!

Claudia

Weekend Workout

So a few of us did a workout on Saturday, early morn.

Workout consisted of:

25 burpees
50 clean and thrusts with a kettlebell
50 double unders or 100 single jumps
50 push ups
50 lunges with dumbells
50 floor sweepers
25 burpees

(I think that was it...)

I felt like something was missing though...

Not exactly food porn...but it was at least tasty

had a li'l grilled chicken, broccoli slaw, and grilled yellow peppers the other night...

-AL

Farmhouse Delivery

So I signed up for the Farmhouse Delivery box. Put my grub to work and made the Deconstructed Squash and Roasted Beets (recipes found on their blog).

The best part? Beet pee. :)

-AL

Another use for those strange paleo ingredients...

I realized the other day that 'cause of this paleo eating....I had all the ingredients in my house to make my own deodorant :)

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-to-make-your-own-deodorant.html

I haven't yet determined whether it's workout worthy, but it's been great for regular everyday use.

Claudia's 1 Week Down Update

Okay Big Mike. I am posting, hello!!!

Last week I posted my goals for this challenge and here is how week #1 went.

1) Kipping pull-ups -- I have practiced after class. I used to be anti-kipping or a kipping hater, and only practice deadhang. The swinging and high reps cause hand pain. Yes, I'm a hand-pain weenie. The deadhangs did help me get better at WODS with pull-ups but they were slow and after a few super sloppy. So for this challenge I'm determined to incorporate kipping pull-up practice into my routine. I've stayed after class and worked on them and have done my regular pull-ups at home. I almost got a butterfly pull-up at the clinic. It was more of a moth, with a broken wing. I am seeing some overall endurance and strength improvement, so I'd say things are going well in this department.

2) Push-ups -- I generally suck at these. When I started Crossfit I could maybe 3 in a row on my knees with horrible form. I am practicing every day and this week I'm upping my number to 35 per day. I'm struggling with full range of motion. Every time I think I'm doing awesome by bringing my not so voluptuous chest to what I think is very close to the ground, one of the two Mikes calls me out and tells me to get lower. So I think I need a more voluptuous chest. Not really, but really. So goal this week is to slow my push-ups down and really focus on getting full range of motion.

3) Box Jumps -- did WOD today with 12 inch box. Didn't go to badly. Next week up to slow 20 inch jumps. Hopefully.

4) Metabolic conditioning -- Did two hill runs this week. One long run and one with 400 m sprints (I'm using the work "sprint" very loosely here). I haven't run since I broke my ankle, so it was slow but not as bad as I thought. I will repeat this again this week and add in some short sprint work as well.

Diet-- I'm good with the paleo as far as food goes mainly by default since I'm intolerant to gluten and all dairy. My problem is mainly with sugar. I love it!!! Prior to the I AM Challenge I gave up sweets in general but replaced with fruit, a lot of it all day, and I thought I was doing well. At the nutrition meeting Carey said that really you should only have one serving of fruit a day. I was at first stunned, then immediately devasted and then hit all the stages of loss-- denial, anger, sadness, etc. I just really couldn't picture a life without 8 servings of fruit a day. I wasn't sure I wanted to live in a world like that. (kidding, mostly). I did eventually give in and now I only eat a very small amount and usually only after a hard workout. I exchanged my fruit for raw vege snacks. It has helped my energy level and body fat loss. My diet goal for this challenge is to focus on getting sufficient protein to build more muscle and drinking way more water.

That turned out longer than I intended.

Claudia :-)

Clay wrote the below, LOL