Running

Stayed with my early morning wake up schedule in prep for next week. Decided to walk down to the high school track down the street and do this WOD.

Run 1600 meters (7:00, 1:35/400 meters)

Rest 3 minutes

Run 1200 meters (5:15, 1:35/400 meters)

Rest 2 minutes

Run 800 meters (3:25, 1:32/400 meters)

Rest 1 minute

Run 400 meters (1:31)

I haven't run further than 800 meters in 5 months so I was pretty happy with my 400 m splits. Also happy with my consistency. It was pretty darn windy out there which felt good on the walk back but not so great on the run. Once I got back I went to my apartment gym and did 4 sets of 10- 25 lb DB bench press. Then did quite a bit of technique work on my squat. Nice workout. Humbling to still be working on my squat.

Ran a lot of random errands today. Then came home and made the above. Kale, EVOO, cayenne pepper, and avocado with baked salmon on top. Yum! Definitely something I will be making again. I think the trick to making this extra yummy was taking all the ingredients (minus the salmon) and mushing it together with my hands.

Happy Friday!

No coffee a success...

Got the confirmation that I did indeed go to Trinity and Wash U. That means I CAN start Monday. Woohoo.

No workout today. Rest day. Still no coffee. I slept so well last night. I can't remember the last time I slept that well in fact. So, I'm sticking with no coffee. Hopefully the sleepiness mid morning will stop once my body adjusts.

This afternoon I went to Alamo Drafthouse today to see Best Worse Movie, a documentary about the movie TROLL 2 made in 1990. Awesome movie. I highly recommend it. Then I went to a Mexican place on S. Congress and split some steak fajitas. Yum! Then I had a margarita...double yum!

Tomorrow is my last day of not working on a week day. I'm thinking about doing something crazy and sleeping in until 7:30 or something.

Lots of Box Jumping

To the left, my amazing new duvet I ordered from Pottery Barn. It was on sale for super cheap which makes me love it even more.

I'm back in my apartment gym today. Made up a WOD.

5 RFT (Rounds for Time)

40 Double Unders

30 Box Jumps (Used a 18 inch bench)

20 1 Arm KB Snatches (Used a 20 lb KB)

21:40...That was a whole lot of jumping. I'm trying to work on consecutive jumps vs step ups so this probably ended up taking more time making myself stick to that.

I went in for my pre employment health/drug screening. My blood pressure was 92/64 and my pulse was 51. I keep pretty good record of my blood pressure and I don't remember it being that low in....ever. Strange. It took 3 sticks, 10 minutes, and lots of prodding in my veins to get 2 vials of blood. I've never had that happen before. My veins are a blood donation centers dream; at least I have been told that every time I donate. I wonder if it was my blood pressure, the blood taker, or some other factor. After a while I started feeling lightheaded and nauseous and was given a pink basin. No puking though. Then I was fitted for a mask in case I come into contact with anyone with a highly contagious disease. What a weird process. I had to put the make on and then had horribly bitter stuff sprayed in my face. If I tasted the horribly bitter stuff I had to try on another size mask.

On my way out of HR told me that my education information is 'pending.' Wash U or Trinity, please hurry up and give up my education information so I can start work Monday. Otherwise I have to wait until the following Monday. Ugh.

Dinner is below...mixed green salad with steak, mushrooms, avocado, and broccoli. I then had 1/2 banana, a handful of blueberries, and several spoonfuls of almond butter. And a couple squares of 85% dark chocolate. I was pretty hungry. : )

Day 1 of no coffee. I was great through my workout and then around 9 it hit me. I felt very sleepy. I got some decaf hot tea which got my mind off of the taste of coffee at least. After a while I got past the energy slowdown and felt back to normal. A success!

Snatch Work

What a great day! I got a lot done.

Having finally completed going through all my stuff I decided I need to simplify my life. This meant trying on every single piece of clothing I had to decide if it should 'stay' or 'go.' That strategy went with about everything else in the apartment. This resulted in the hallway being filled with boxes of stuff I was ready to give away. I ended up making 2 trips to the United Methodist Church down the street (they happen to be having a garage sale next week) with my car full. I drive a VW Rabbit so that is not a huge amount, but still a lot of stuff. Ah, feels good!

Anyhow, afterwards I headed to the gym to work with trainer John. We did Burg Warm Up Technique work with a PVC and 45 lb bar and I actually started to get it. It became obvious to me (and I'm sure him) that my squat still needs tons of work. I spent the last 5 minutes (6:18) doing Isabel (30 snatches for time, not Rxd, Used 45#). There was some training during the 30 as well but I was not allowed to drop the bar at all. The last 5 snatches felt great. I was finally starting to get the hang of the full body extension and getting myself under the bar. Yay!

Since there are no classes at CF Central this week they are offering free classes. So after working out I stuck around for Coach Crystal McReynolds Trigger Point Therapy class. If anyone thinks foam rollers hurt so good, try some of these toys. I'm strangely excited about having found new ways to cause myself grimacing pain.

Next, Carey Kepler and Crystal Nelson taught a class on pH balance of your body and Intermittent Fasting. Luckily, CF Ramstein had it's own Registered Dietician (PJ) at its disposal, so none of this was so new to me but it was nice to hear it again. During this class, I could not concentrate very much because the only thing I could think about was that I stunk SO BAD! I guess after working out for an hour and then trigger pointing, my stinch had reached pretty bad levels. I kept scooting my chair inch by inch away from the group as to not gross anyone out, although I was grossed out. You know it's bad when you can smell yourself!

Afterwards I showered quickly because I needed to run out print/fax some info for my background check for work. No time for lunch so I ran to Whole Foods for a fresh squeezed beverage. Part of the lecture on pH balance was the benefits of drinking strange veggie concoctions. Anyhow, my choice was beets, spinach, and carrots! I have to say it was better than I thought it would be but my expectations were not high. : ) The beets did make it pretty and I truly felt incredibly alert after drinking this. After today's lecture I decided I am cutting out coffee. I did it for a few weeks a while back and my coffee consumption has creaped up week by week. So I'm going cold turkey tomorrow. I'll report back on that how goes.

After many more boring errands I'm back in my apartment doing 'stuff.' I hope every had a fabulous Tuesday.

P.S. Since I've started this blog, I've received several inquiries into Crossfit and how long I work out. For info, go here and click on "Start Here" in the left hand column. If you still have questions I'm more than happy to answer anything. I usually spend 1 hour to 1.5 hours 4/5 days a week in the gym including warm up/streching, etc.

Unpacking Day

My stuff from Germany arrived today. I haven't seen it in about 4 months and there were some strange things along with a lot of stuff that went in a pile to give away. The strangest thing to arrive from Germany...an Orange Starburst! I decided to throw it away.

I have spent the last 9 hours unpacking and am starting to make good progress.

I got up at 0700 to get a workout in. CF Central coaches are off this week (with a few exceptions) so I did a CF Football workout in my apartment gym. The apartment gym is kinda lame but I was able to work with some things.

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 15 min:

5 1 Arm DB Thrusters Right (30#)

5 1 Arm DB Thrusters Left (30#)

7 Push Ups

9 Box Jumps (24") Had to jump on an 18" bench

7 rounds + 8 DB Thrusters

Sunday

Happy Sunday! Sunday only means 1 thing these days, clipping coupons! The new tradition is courtesy of my bestest friend Kristen. Kristen gets a lot of diaper/baby type coupons from the paper, which of course I do not need. Nor do I need about 50% of the coupons because they are for processed foods which for the most part I do not eat because I eat Paleo. You will probably hear more about Paleo later but back to the coupons for now. The coupons I love are for toothbrushes, dental floss, and body wash type products. If you are going to keep yourself clean and smelling great you might as well save 75 cents while doing it. I am so committed to coupon clipping that I recently bought a coupon organizer. I get a weird satisfaction out of clipping and organizing these coupons. I even enjoy the paper that the coupons are printed on. It's thinner than the rest of the paper and feels good between your fingers. Newspaper is yucky to feel.

There was a period in my childhood when I clipped coupons on Sunday's so I guess the tradition is back. I had 2 Sunday traditions as a child. Both involved going to church and sunday school. After sunday school I would come home and cook (and eat) an entire box of Kraft Mac and Cheese. I preferred the spirals to the normal boring noodles. Dinosaurs trumped spirals. The other food tradition was velvetta cheese, rotel tomatoes, and chips! Apparently I really enjoyed fake cheese products during my childhood years. While eating I would either fight with my sister Katie over the comics or watch WWF. I don't know how WWF entered the picture but it had to be watched upstairs because Dad watched This Old House on the TV in the living room.

Now I'm in a new city and it's time to start some new traditions. First things first, coffee and breakfast. I have stopped eating fake cheese. Red peppers, green onions, and eggs with a smear of avocado on the side. My fridge was empty except for this stuff; thus my breakfast was created and it seems as if grocery shopping will enter the list of Sunday 'to dos.'

Next I headed to church.

After getting out of church I realized it was the PERFECT Austin day. Sunny, blue sky, breezy, and 80. I decided to drive downtown and explore the streets of the city and then wandered over to Zilker Park and Barton Springs Pool. I wasn't really dressed appropriately for swimming so I'll be vising Barton Springs later this week. After more walking I headed to Whole Foods for some yummy lunch. After much more wandering I was getting pretty warm and decided I needed to go swimming and I should get a swimsuit. So I headed to Macy's, bought a swimsuit and went directly into my apartment pool. It was awesome. I think laid in the sun for half an hour or so. I didn't want to turn into a lobster. While at the pool I met 2 of my neighbors. My apartment complex is brand new and of the 400 units, 5% of them are occupied. So basically almost my entire complex was down at the pool!

Since I did 4 days 'on' I took Saturday and Sunday off from working out. I'll start up again tomorrow.

Finally I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom. Today she is 59 years old and looking pretty darn good. She is on a river cruise in Portugal with my dad, Uncle John, Aunt Linda, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Johnana.

Below are some pics...

1. Downtown Austin today taken from S. Lamar bridge

2. Breakfast

3. Dinner- chicken, mushrooms, brussel sprouts, onions, garlic all sauteed in EVOO. Total prep and cook time = 15 minutes.

4. My mom and I

I need HTML for dummies because I can't figure out how to make these pics turn out how I want them too. I'll work on it.

Blog #1

Hello all. Welcome to my blog. For now the main purpose is to track Crossfit workouts and just everyday randomness. As many of you know, I just moved to Austin. It feels nice to be back in Texas and I'm currently settling into my apartment and general life in the city. After being in Germany for over 2 years, I have fallen back in love with Target and many other American luxuries. Of course I never considered Target to be a luxury before but indeed it is! Sometimes I just go up and down the aisles and look at all the options. Whole Foods and Central Market are also AMAZING!

The fact that I can go to Target and wander up and down the aisles tells me it's a good thing I start my job in a week. After almost 4 months of unemployment I cannot wait to start to get into some sort of routine again. I had a routine during the last few months but it was pretty lazy to say the least. I did enjoy reading many good books while drinking coffee and reflecting on my life past, present and future.

I've started attending Crossfit Central, which is just a few blocks away from my apartment. After passing a 2 hour 'elements class' I was given the seal of approval and started my workouts. After being off for several days with the move to Austin I did 4 days of workouts in a row. I'll briefly sum those up below and then I'm off for the night. There is tons to write about but I'll save some for future posts.

Friday, April 23:

For time:
1 round of Cindy
1 Clean & Jerk
1 round of Cindy
2 Clean & Jerk
1 round of Cindy
3 Clean & Jerk
cont. to 1 round of Cindy, 10 Clean & Jerk
M:155 F:105
1 round of Cindy= 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats

This was one that is way worse than it looks on paper. At least for me. I used 80 # for the C&J's. We had a 20 min time limit and I made it through round 7 + 5 pull ups.

Thursday, April 22:

Deadlift
2-2-2-2-2
Then,
AMRAP in 15 minutes:
10 GHD Sit Up
10 Ring Dip
10 Burpee
10 SDHP M:32kg F:24kg

Last set of 2 DLs was to be around 80% of 1 rep max. Last set was 185. Did negatives on the rings for dips. I think I got 7 plus for rounds. Ill be better now that I will record every day.

Wednesday, April 21:

For time:
10 Thrusters 115/75
30 KB Snatch 24kg/16kg
1k Row
30 KB Swings 24kg16kg
10 Snatch 115/75

Rxd for Thrusters and used 45 for snatches. Time was 13 something. Didn't write it down.

Tuesday, April 20:

5 Rounds for max reps:
Deadlift
HSPU
M:275 F:185
* rest 3 minutes b/w rounds

I used 135 for the DL and 1 ab mat for round 1 and 2 ab mats for rounds 2-5 for HSPU. Completed 88 reps of DL and 22 of HSPU. Overall a good, hard workout. I am getting better at HSPU but still can't do more than 1 with only 1 ab mat.