Bet you thought I was going to talk about bike racing or running, right?! Well, sorry, hate to disappoint, but, I have been invited by my Cross Fit trainers to compete at an upcoming Cross Fit Invitational. There are three divisions- advanced, intermediate, and masters. I will be entered in the intermediate female division.
And, I am scared. Remember the “face your fears” day? This is a completely new level of fear. Fear of an inability to do it. Fear of heavy weight. Fear of looking like a fool. Yikes!! That’s a lot of fears. Some of the workouts are ridiculously hard- like tomorrow’s WOD in preparation for the Invitational {it’s on April 10th by the way}. For me it’s about finding out how hard I can push, but, still complete the workouts. According to Calvin (trainer), “I always have a little left in the tank!” And, I do. Being the endurance athlete that I am (was?!), you always want to have some left in the tank for the Sprint Finish!! But, in Cross Fit workouts, it’s hard to figure out how much effort to exert early on- and then most of the time, I’ve conserved too much. The invitational will be ONE BIG LESSON for me. And, what’s my goal? To do it.
What is a Cross Fit Invitational? Track meet extraordinaire that will include things such as double unders, hang cleans, kipping pull-ups, sprinting, burpees….you name it, it might be there! The workouts will not be posted till the night or day of the event. I have no way to prepare other than to keep doing what I am doing- five days a week.
Did you know that Cross Fit could be considered a sport? I didn’t either. Check out the Cross Fit Games website for more information.
As you may be aware, there are a lot of cross fit workouts that have names to them. I’ve already talked about “Cindy”- which was the day of the serious skin tears along with a PR for me at 15 rounds. The amazing thing about the cross fit workouts are the simplicity and the timing of them. Like how little time it really takes- “Cindy” is a 20 minute workout, “Fran” can be done in under ten minutes and today we have “Helen”.
“Helen” is simple. Run 400 meters, Complete 21 Kettlebell Swings with a 35 pound bell (prescribed for girls) and 12 Pull-ups. Now, multiply that times 3. A good time is under 12 minutes for girls (not sure about men’s times). The last time I did “Helen” my time was 13:49 with a light green band for assisted pull-ups. And, I was in massive oxygen debt for an hour after the WOD! There is no time to recover in this workout. Basically, your heart rate is completely maxed out the entire time. It’s seriously harder than a 5km- because in a 5km you can meter out your effort level. With this type of workout, you just go for broke and/or you puke. Thankfully, I did not puke today, but I was so SPENT at the end that I am still recovering!
So, you want to know what my time was???? 11:25! More than two minutes faster than last time and done with no bands. Doing the party dance!!!
I am of the opinion that we need to celebrate our victories around here and be proud. Stand tall. Did you go out and run today? Be proud. Did you do sets of heavy weights? How about a walk with your dog and kids?? Celebrate it. You got out there and did it.
One month ago, I posted that I would be starting the ZONE diet. Even though I wasn’t overweight, I still felt like I could lose some body fat and in watching my Cross Fit trainers (you can read about them here), it looked like the right way to go about losing the fat. Also, I had been having some dizzy spells at school while teaching and found that as soon as I went on the ZONE diet, that dizziness went away.
A little background on the ZONE:
The ZONE diet is not a high-protein diet. At any one meal, you eat 3-4 ounces of protein and you are eating more carbohydrates than protein at any one meal.
Basically, the focus is on protein, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds and no sugar.
“You will be protected from arthritis and osteoporosis. Lowering insulin can alleviate tissue inflammation, because reduced insulin levels also mean reduced levels of the building blocks of pain- producing eicosanoids. By decreasing these eicosanoids, you relieve the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis. Essentially, the ZONE diet works in much the same way as aspirin: both control pain by controlling eicosanoids. (page 20 of Week in the ZONE)
PRODUCTS OF THE ZONE DIET, PART 1:
The ZONE Nutrition Bars: These bars are an almost perfect combination of proteins, carbohydrates and fats and would be considered a 2 block meal. I found these to be an incredibly convenient snack in times when there was NO TIME for preparing real food. I’ve tried several flavors and found the Sweet and Salty or the Cocoa Crisp to be the best tasting of all the bars.
The ZONE Nutrition Shakes: The shakes when mixed with milk provide a 3 block meal. I’ve tried the chocolate and have loved them. For me, I rely on these shakes when I’m in a rush in the morning or as a late afternoon meal. Incredibly convenient, easy to make shakes for time starved people.
Here’s my opinion:
The hardest part of being on the ZONE diet (or any kind of diet) is the planning it requires. To be successful, you need to plan all your meals and snacks ahead of time. And, knowing the quantities to eat at any given meal. The book says all you need is your eye and the palm of your hand- but I’d still prefer to use a measuring cup and a scale- but both take time. The bars and shakes offered me time shortcuts for when I hadn’t planned my next meal. One drawback of them is the price; they are expensive- both will run approximately $2.50 a piece. However, I won’t hesitate to have them on hand- because I’d rather eat/drink these than have a non-zone meal.
Who has positive experiences of being on the ZONE diet?! Share, please.
P.S. I would like to thank the representatives of the ZONE diet for sending me these bars and shakes. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to try them.
“By trying new things we open the potential to learn more about who we are and what we like.” quote by Cheryl Nordyke.
Olympic Lifting. Heard of it? Ever tried it?! Me, hummm, no. Never. Not one single olympic lift in all of my years of working out. One of Cross Fit’s main aspects is olympic lifting. And, they bring in the big guns to the certifications to train our trainers. Coach Burgener is the main one. Almost daily, we are drilled on the “Burgener warm-up”. “Dip, drive”, “Shoulders”, “Snatch”, “2 inch snatch…” These are just a few of the key words that are running through my head- in no particular order…. And, the two most difficult ones for me are the Hang Clean and the Snatch. Argh!
Below is a video of Sage Burgener doing the Hang Clean. She is now an Olympic Lifting coach who trains other instructors. She makes it look easy!
Tomorrow’s WOD will include pull-ups, kettlebell swings (prolly swinging at least 44, maybe 53) and Hang Cleans. When I master it, I will share it!
In the meantime, tell me a skill you’re perfecting now!
What year did women get to run a marathon in the Olympics?
How long did we have to wait before the 800 meter run was reintroduced for women in the Olympics?
What year did women have a road race for cycling? Mountain Biking?
I have always been a huge fan of the Olympics, the spirit of the Olympics and a bit of a history nut. In college, one of my finals included entire course on women in sport and I have been fascinated ever since. What’s even more interesting to me is how they train, what they eat, how many hours a day/week/years they’ve spent getting ready for one event. Can you name your favorite woman Olympian? When I was a kid, Mary Lou Retton made a huge impression on me- and yet, I never attempted gymnastics! 1984 was a big year- the year of the marathon for women and the Road Race for women. I was 14! And, that was the year I started running. Something must have rubbed off on me!!?
Now, 20 years later, I’m still an avid fan of the Olympics and in training like I was one, laugh out loud. Cross Fit is serious work and was curious to see how many Olympians use Cross Fit to train. The cool thing about this type of training, is that it’s working for everyone- whether you’re a stay at home mom to an Olympic athlete- cross fit will help all of us getting stronger, leaner, faster.
In my quick search, I found 4 women Cross Fitters who are also Olympians. Cool!
This leads me to the “Train Like an Olympian” Promotion at the Open Sky Project.If’ I’m going to train like an Olympian, I’d like to look good while I’m doing it! My favorite Handful, Inc bra is on sale for 15% off!!
And, some other products on sale are the Eat Smart Digital Scale which I totally need for the ZONE diet!
3 months ago, these were my favorite jeans. Lucky. Easy Riders. They fit me perfectly. Quads, waist, everywhere. And, I only owned one pair of jeans cause these fit so well. So, now, almost three months later with five cross fit workouts a week and a fairly loose ZONE diet these jeans are falling off me! I wish I could say WHOO HOOO?!?! But, you know how hard it is to find one pair of jeans that fit? Ok, I’m still happy to be shrinking, but, man, I need some street clothes!
Yes, you can too lose inches off your butt! If you can’t find a local cross fit in your area, log on to Cross Fit and read the workouts of the day. There are MANY that you can do with zero equipment (read the message boards too). I think the bottom line is that every single day we do something different and even though I may walk in sore, I can still do the workout of the day- because it involves different muscles.
DECISIONS AND SETTING GOALS:
Last February, I raced my bike and won those roses on my home page, remember? Well yesterday, I could have raced that race again, but didn’t. We were still there, but, I wasn’t racing. I haven’t been on my bike in 2 months….So, here comes the question, will I race again this season? I just don’t know…I’m not all that motivated to try and schedule even two rides a week with my schedule the way it is and not excited to juggle being mother to two boys on race day. That was the part that always freaked me out last year; “what are they doing???” I would love to get out and do some easy rides on weekends, but am not ready to commit to a race yet…give me a few more months!
So, onwards and upwards…There are lots of things I could chose to focus on in Cross Fit and lots of small goals I could set myself that seem both achievable and worth working towards.
Like executing a perfect overhead squat with 95 pounds on the bar. Or completing a 95 pound Clean or even a SNATCH for that matter. Each day we try a new workout, so that three months from now when we do it again, we can track our own improvement, and I know I can do it better and faster each time. That’s the beauty of it. And, yes, I am still running and doing yoga! Crazy as it sounds, we do lots of sprints in Cross Fit and then I spend my day job teaching and doing yoga with my students.
What goals are you working towards now? Although, I’ve not yet written down any large concrete goals, I’m setting small ones and I’m happy with that.
Ok, folks, I’ve tried to NOT puke Cross Fit on you daily, but, I got a lot of questions about it, so, here is the latest news for me…I can do 75 kipping pull-ups with NO BANDS!!!
WHOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Yesterday, was technically a “make-up” day. Either we could choose the 10 minute Handstand Push-up workout (which we had done the day before) or could choose to do Cindy. Cindy is another very simple Cross Fit classic. It’s so simple that it’s crazy I’d never heard of it before now. For twenty minutes do repeats of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 squats. When I heard that was the workout, I knew I could do FIVE kipping pull-ups. What I didn’t know was how many sets of FIVE I could do. I just figured I would try the first few without the bands and just try it out….The good news is that I MADE IT. All sets of pull-ups with no bands. At the end I was doing only 2 or 3 at a time, but, I did them all!
The Results for Me are 15 Rounds in 20 minutes. That is with lots of breathing breaks and stops at the end for skin removal. Unfortunately, I had been neglecting my callouses and with this high number of pull-ups and I lost some skin. Yikes. But at the time, I was too stoked to be bummed about it. Lesson learned…soften callouses with pumice stone and very likely wear gloves!
So, YES, I am proud, skin tears and all. Just planning on preventing that in the future!
Anybody want to suggest products for my skin repair?
As you read this, I will officially be on DAY 1 of the Zone Diet. For the last two weeks, I have fiddled around with it, but, tomorrow is my official start date. I bet you are all wondering WHY would I be starting any kind of diet whatsoever, right??? I eat healthy, or so I think, and yet, I am still carrying around excess fat. Seriously.
I started cross fit workouts back in November and since then have already seen a large loss of body fat. I don’t have any numbers for you but, I can tell you I dropped at least one dress size without changing my diet at all- and that includes wine, dark chocolate and iced americano’s regularly!!
Cross Fit, across the board recommends a diet high in protein, vegetables, nuts, some fruits and no sugar, and, depending on the affiliate, will depend on what diet they recommend. To my knowledge there are only two- the Paleo Diet and the Zone Diet. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to hear a lecture given by my trainers on the ZONE diet and that was the final icing on the cake for me.
Most importantly, I heard that for every 3 workouts, you drop 1 (like in the trash) if your diet sucks.
Number 2, the ZONE diet’s function is primarily to reduce inflammation in the body. (Like for example, the chronic diseases that are associated with inflammation- heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer, asthma, allergies, and anything that ends in -itis- TENDENITIS {me!!!}
Number 3, My trainers are my hero’s! Both of them. And, so, it’s kind of like if they are doing it and are successful and completely ripped, then, I can do it too.
I also wrote to the PR person for the ZONE Diet and they were excited to provide me with samples of a few of the books and bars that the ZONE diet offers. I will discuss this more in detail later, but, I wanted you to know that I am READING all the material I can get my hands on and honestly, the only thing that’s hard to figure out is how much food I am expected to eat DAILY!?!?!?!
Questions/Comments/Concerns…let us hear them below.
As I’ve moved rapidly through the pull-up bands, I’m almost to the END of the band selection! Our pull-up bands offer help based on weight. I started on Blue back in November. Graduated to Light green sometime in December (or early January) and now as of yesterday, I. can. now. do. a kipping pull-up!! Whoo Hooo…It’s party time over here. Yes, that’s right. Yours truly is now fully capable of a pull-up.
So, below is a great example of me doing it…except I have no idea how to flip the frame! Apologies, but too excited to wait another day to post this.
And, you can here my trainer in the background…dead lifts followed FRAN today! It seems that every time we do a new workout- which is every single day – I almost have to relearn the skill. Fran consists of only Thrusters and Pull-ups (21, 15, 9) but, the objective is to go FAST and HARD. First time for me is almost like an experiment. Next time, I will be more ready to kick some booty!
Or, for those of you, who’d like to see me right side up, I did it again in our garage tonight. Notice those gloves…My hands are completely trashed with callouses and blisters and I finally broke down and bought some Easton women’s batting gloves.
