One of my old yoga teachers from Yoga Works is a featured model for a new organic clothing line! She teaches fantastic Yoga Works style flow classes in Orange County in case you live there. (her website).
I’m finally to a scary place in crossfit where the weight is so heavy that I’m scared of it. Particularly in any weights that need to go over my head- such as an overhead squat. I did meet my goal of 95 pounds over my head, and yet, I’m scared to death of just getting the weight to the right position!
And, no, I can’t do a muscle up! Got a lesson today, though. Seriously scary. Good demo of air squats and muscles ups here.
About a month ago, I posted that I was testing Nitrean and Opticen. It is now one week past my competition, and I can honestly say that these products have helped tremendously.
Number one, is that both can be mixed in water easily and still taste good! Number two, if I don’t have time for a meal immediately following a workout, I’ll use the Opticen (2 scoops mixed with 16-20 ounces of water). This is obviously not ideal {real food is always better} but when I’m rushing, I’m happy with the Opticen. Additionally it does seem to help with muscle soreness significantly! With the exception of one very recent workout {of like 90 back squats at 95 pounds}, I have been a heck of a lot less sore! Finally, I’ve had one huge PR in the last month! My Dead Lift PR went from 185 to 210!!
The one product that didn’t work for me was the ETS supplement, although, I’ve read that magnesium and zinc would help with muscle soreness, I found for my body, the dosage may have been too much for my small woman’s frame or something…I just didn’t like how bad I smelled after taking it for a few days–even after I reduced the dose by half, I still smelled horrendous post workout. That’s not to say that it was the product, but, once I stopped taking it, I did stop smelling like a dump truck.
So far, these products {Nitrean and Opticen} are working for me and I’ll continue to repurchase.
The wait was unbearable…
Seconds ticking slowly
Till the start of the first event….
Tension was in the air
Some nervous laughter
Heard here and there.
Papers given,
Numbers written,
And it feels
Real….
Finally the music is on,
The loudspeaker declared the heats
Ahead goes Rachel,
Followed by Nica,
Then Penny….
Then the men are in
Chris Balanay
Jason, Steve
Chris Mendoza, Brad
And Matt…
Undeniable focus,
Bodies of strength and endurance
Explode
With accuracy
Determination
And speed.
Pullups, cleans, box jumps
Backsquats, pullovers
Burpees, DU’s
Executed to their best
Leaving no place for regrets
No disappointments
The moment is here
All their hard work,
Their sacrifices,
Their commitment,
Lead them to be
Among the best
And the fittest.
They had done so much
To be here today
And to compete.
Crossfit CDR
With all the members
Was there to cheer
To stand
Hand in hand
With every competitor
Every friend
And the coaches
So proud
To see with their own eyes
How far they have led
Those athletes
Those friends
Who put all their trust
In their hands.
Nothing like a competition
To keep your blood flowing
To throw you on the edge
To lift your spirits
To let you breathe again.
First off, let me just say that I am NOT going to be objective in this review.
This is my personal experience at this event, so, if I sound “snarky” it’s because I am. So, if you saw the first two events, you knew what I needed to do. And, I did it. I was the FIRST group in the first event to go. And, my first judge of the day- stank! It was a max rep pull-up on a huge mother of a pull-up bar- thickness wise.
The good news was that I had a huge PR on the pull-up bar of 20 pull-ups in a row with no rest. Then, it was downhill after that. My judge not only Did Not Count Out Loud Nor did she let me know when a rep wasn’t counting. When I was done, I had done 34 in my head with two bad ones. She gave me credit for 26!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That stucks. I had a crappy first judge. Yes, I am mad about it. The next two “tests” went ok. I did box jumps and 95 Power Cleans as best I could. Prolly could have done more and was disappointed in myself at this point, but, during that event, I felt completely TRASHED!!
Event #2
The good news is that my first judge was the worst of the day, they got better after that. I told my judge that I could do one pullover and we’d see how the rest went. The rule was that once you got one, you had to stay at that movement until you got all three. And, so, I got my first pullover, but, did not lock out my arms at the top, so that rep didn’t count. Sh******** Thankfully, I got the next three with no problem. Moved on to the burpees and double unders and came back to do three more pullovers. Got 2. Then, arms, legs were TOAST and I was unable to get that last one. And, I tried and tried and tried. My whole CDR crew was screaming for me and I battled. Not only was my hometown crew cheering for me, I also had the organizers of the competition coming over to coach me to rest. I was one of the few girls who could complete those damn things and therefor my score would go above all those who attempted but could not do it. Reached the time cut of 10 minutes before I could complete the last pullover. My overall ranking went from 30th place to 20th after this event. {total competitors was 58)
Event 3
3 Rounds for Time of a 200 meter sprint on blacktop, followed by 12 1-arm kettlebell snatches and 12 toes to bar. This was by far my best event of the day finishing 2nd in my heat with a time of 7:13. This event moved me from 20th place to 12th. Sorry, no photos yet!
My feelings overall are mixed. The judging was VASTLY inconsistent across the board, the venue was nothing but a slab of concrete with porta-potties and there was bar work in every event—which lead to extremely torn up hands for EVERYBODY!!
However, I know in my heart that I couldn’t have done much better unless I were superwoman, ha ha ha ha and I got to reconnect with an old college cross country buddy who is now competing in cross fit competitions! I also have the most awesome support from my CrossFit CDR coaches and friends who came out to support all of us!
Final results are posted under “downloads” on the Next Level Performance website.
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Photos were provided by friend, Katia.
AMRAP in 2 minutes of CTB Pullups (Males), Chin over horizontal plane (Females)
Rest 2 min
AMRAP in 2 minutes of: Ground to Shoulder (#135/#95)
Rest 2 min
AMRAP in 2 min of: Box Jumps (24”, 20”)
Event #2 “Zipadeedodah”
10 min cutoff: for time or reps achieved. Out of 146 total.
For time:
15 Backsquat from the Rack (#155, #95)
followed by
2 rounds of:
6 pullovers
12 burpees
40 doubleunders
followed by
15 Deadlifts (#155, #95)
As I sit here and ponder the above, I ask myself why am I doing this again?! The main reason I believe is that I am a competitor. I like to test myself against other girls half my age with no kids and see how I measure up, hahahah… All I can say is that I like it. The thought of doing a simple 5km sounds boring to me at the moment.
Anyways…on being versatile. In the events above there are two movements that we have NEVER done. The main one being the “pullover” and the second one being the one armed kettlebell swing. A pullover is simply sending your legs over the bar. (Here is a fairly ungraceful version of it on youtube.) This reminds me of the main purpose of crossfit–that is having the strength to do a wide variety of things that you may never do in a regular workout. Having the right attitude to just attempt things you’d never do otherwise. To be strong enough to try. Or having the humility to get out there and just do it.
And, it’s not just me competing from our local CrossFit box. We have 12 competitors going!! 4 girls (1 master), 1 master man, and lots of intermediate and advanced men. Good luck to everybody and thanks for your support!
You can follow the action on Twitter starting at 6am Saturday.
So, you finish a killer workout and run out the door, right?! Wrong, or at least, when time allows, there is always room for improvement in the recovery from exercise and in your ability to bounce back the next day.
The cool thing is that ******maybe****** cross your fingers, I’ve got it figured out. Number 1, I get calories in my stomach as soon as possible- like within 15 minutes.
#1 I have been using 2 scoops of Opticen in 20 ounces of water! For the last month, my muscle soreness has been significantly better.
#2 5 Essential Yoga Poses: Pidgeon, DownDog, Standing Forward Bend, Handstand, and Legs up the Wall Pose
#3 FOOD…..Check out images below. Egg White (ish) {Couple yokes fell in}Frittata with Onions, Zucchini, Broccoli, and Spinach topped with one measly ounce of Pecorino Cheese! This is two meals for me!
Smothered with avocado and a side dish of cherry tomatoes…
Finally, water, water, water….and a little iced coffee from the best coffee in my town!
