'Till I Collapse

"'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,
Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse."

I spent all day with a runny nose, sore body and sneezing every few minutes. I did not want to do crossfit today AT ALL. But I knew if didn't go today, I would have to go tomorrow, on my birthday. Otherwise, I would only go twice this week. So I started thinking, maybe I will take it easy this week. I told my brother I was thinking about not going today, because I knew if anyone would know if I should or not, it would be him. He then told me I should do it and I would feel better afterwards. I still didn't want to go, and tried to find excuses not to. He then send me the song "Till I Collapse" from Eminem. That did it. I immediately got up, dragged my butt to the pharmacy, bought some allergy nasal spray and used it.

One hour later I was at the gym ready to go. And I am glad I did! I wore my new heart monitor watch my brother gave me and tracked my calories. It said I had burned over 800 calories at the end of the work out. No wonder. Here is what we had to do: 

StrengthFront squat 5×5
Conditioning
Part 1
Abs

Part 2: 5 rds
10 kettlebell swings
10 reverse burpees*
Run 200m

It was not an easy one, but I was able to complete everything, no pain to keep me from going. I used a 25lb kettlebell and a 10lb med ball for my workout. For the front squat I used 10lb weights.

I think I finished in 16 minutes for I'm not sure. 

I was breathing so heavy on my last run, but at the same time it felt sooooo good! 

I definitely was glad I went!  :)

NOT a Good Day at the Gym

I had my first 9:30am class. I don't know if it was the time of the day or the fact I had 4 days between classes, but I did NOT do well at all!

Here is the work out we had to do:
Conditioning 2rds


Partner workout
100m farmers walk/weighted squats
200m run/butterfly Situps
20 step walking plate lunge/mt climbers
Jumprope 100singles/plank hold

As soon as we started the warm up, I felt a pull on my inner thigh muscle. I tried to stretch it out and roll it, but nothing helped. It was incredibly painful and I couldn't do anything where I had to bend my legs, so pretty much most of the work outs. I also felt bad for my partner, since she was way more advanced than I was, she ended up having to do longer workout as she waited for me to finish my workout. And top it all off, I had to do jumprope for the first in I think 20 years. At first I was so clumsy, I couldn't do a single one. But during the second round I got the hang of it and was able to do 50.

So yeah, that pretty much sums up how my work out went. Hopefully it gets better next time!

C25k - Week 1 Day 3

One week down, 7 weeks to go! I'm starting to realize that I'm slowly but surely improving my endurance. Yesterday, after working for 13 hours from 7am until 8pm, I decided to go running and complete Day 3, even though I was exhausted, had a headache and it was very cold outside. The reason for forcing myself to do it, was that I don't want a huge gap in between the days of the program, since I'm only being able to complete 2 days a week as it is with Crossfit and all. Plus if I wited until today, I wouldn't have a day of rest before Crossfit tomorrow morning, and that would probably be worst. So I did it and my husband tagged along which definitely helped. He is way more fit than I me because his job requires him to be more physical. He is used to walking long distances and he also plays hockey, so doing Day 3 for him was a peace of cake. For me, on the other hand, although it felt easier than the two previous days, it was still difficult, especially towards the end. But I kept at it, and my breathing has become more steady, less heavy. Considering all the outside factors (cold air, headache, tiredness), I did very well. Even though when I was done my headache had become much worse, I was happy with myself for getting myself to complete it and for not having struggled so much. Now, onto Week 2!

I Need to Hide the Scale

I know, I know... I'm not supposed to weight myself every single day, but I was doing it anyway and that made me realize I gained 2 pounds in one day, after an evening of eating too much Pizza and wings I shouldn't have. The problem is, on the long run, if I don't make that an habit and keep healthy eating the following days, those 2 pounds wouldn't make difference. But I weighted myself, and saw 2 extra pounds, and got upset. Since then I have decided not to weight myself, except on Sundays. I will measure myself in addition to weighting myself to see the real results. Tomorrow I will find out if those two pounds really did make a difference or not...

My First WOD at the GYM!

Today I had my first official in gym workout. Not that the at-home workouts were not difficult, but it was definitely more exciting and better to have a workout at the gym, with the instructor ensuring I had a good form and with the support of other people. 


Our WOD (Workout Of the Day) was the Lumberjack 20. The instructor scaled it down for me, since this is my first week, so instead of 400 meters, I ran 200 meters in between exercises. Here is how it went:


Warm-up: Run 400m

Lumberjack 20:

20 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
Run 200m
20 Pull-ups
Run 200m
20 overhead squat (with a PVC)
Run 200m
20 kettlebell swings
Run 200m
20 pushups
Run 200m
20 medball Situps
Run 200m
20 Dumbbell thrusters
Run 200m

I finished it in 23 minutes. 

I wouldn't say it was as difficult as yesterday's workout, but I had to push though a lot, especially during the pull-ups and the push ups. Plus I can definitely feel it in my arms and legs. Tomorrow should be fun getting out of bed to go to work. And by the way, I was able to do push ups just fine! :)

I'm super happy I finished my first in class WOD!!

Run For Your Lives

My brother just signed me up for a 5K in October. That will be my first 5K, but the funny thing is it's not just a regular 5k. It's the "Run For Your Lives" obstacle course race. Not only it's an obstacle course but it is infested with Zombies! I am super excited and I really hope I am able to do it. After all, I have 5 months to train right?

Here is an article from TheFW that pretty much summarizes what's involved in this crazy race as well shows a video from last year's race, if you are interested in learning more.

Nothing better to motivate my c25k then imagining a bunch of zombies running after me!

Burpee Tears

I still haven't gone to the actual gym for the Crossfit classes. Yesterday's class was cancelled as well due to construction and I decided to use it as a day of rest and go today at 4pm. Turns out I hadn't checked the scheduled carefully and they didn't offer a class at 4pm, only at 9:30am. Since they had given an at-home work out for yesterday's cancelled class I decided to do that one today just so I could have my 3 days of CF work out for the week. 


Here was the work-out:  


10rds: 10 walking lunges (each leg), 10 burpees.


I was dreading it since last time I tried to do Burpees, I couldn't finish 3 sets of 10. I pressed Play on my Ipod and started.. The Walking Lunges weren't as difficult. But then came the Burpees. Oh my God, my legs kept on getting weaker each time. Usually around the 4th or 5th I collapsed on the floor or stopped before jumping up. I didn't think I could finish it. I started crying at around the 8th set. A rush of different emotions came over me: Disappointment, shame, lack of belief in myself, pain, tiredness... I knew my brain was trying to put me down. I then prayed to God in my head to give me strength and played Stronger by Kanye West. And 3 sets later I was finished! I collapsed on the floor, breathing hard, smiling, I was so proud of myself. 


It took me 28 minutes but I had done it. 


I was in so much pain afterwards, I did about 10 minutes of stretches and then muscle rolling. I feel fine now, but most of all, accomplished! 

1st Week Progress

I lost 5 pounds since I started this journey and 3 pounds in the last week!

I have been counting my calories using My Fitness Pal and trying not to go over 1200 calories per day. I also make sure I drink at least 2 liters of water per day. The only difficult thing is eating less carbs and more protein, like they teach in Paleo Diet. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. I'm slowly increasing my intake of Protein and decreasing my intake or Carbs. It's definitely working so far!

1st Official Day of Crossfit: The Push Up Wall

I was planning on going to my first real Crossfit today, but I learned it had been cancelled. 


They then gave us a at-home workout:  


10 rds: 5 pushups, 10 Situps, 15 airsquats. 


I played my Workout playlist on my Ipod and did a bit of a warm up and then begun. I started my first push up and I couldn't go down. My abs felt like they were going to get ripped apart. They felt as if they were locked and I couldn't move. That made me so upset, I didn't know why that was happening especially because I was felling fine the days before, and last week I had even done push ups on my introductory classes. But I decided to do modified push ups instead and I kept going. 


My final time was 15:32. 


It felt so amazing to finish, I was smiling at the end but the push up wall was definitely a bummer.

C25k - Week 1 Day 2

I didn't get to the day 2 of my c25k until today, but I thought I would be fine since I had done the introductory classes at Crossfit and I was eating healthy as well as taking some vitamins.

I was fine, but it was NOT easy. Just the warm up got me tired, and I had to keep pushing myself to run those 30 second, then those 45 seconds, then that minute. I was disappointed in myself but at the same time, I was happy I was able to push through each run. At the end I felt like stopping, but then it started to lightly rain and the song "Suddenly I See" came on my Ipod and that kept me going the last 4 minutes. 

It felt great to finish day 2 even if I got way more tired than I wanted to. At least I finished!

Work Out Playlist

I decided to make a playlist for when I go running as well as for at-home Crossfit workouts and this is what I came up with:

If you have any other suggestions, feel free to comment below! :)

How It All Begun

As I write this, I'm in a lot of pain, everywhere! This week I started the Crossfit introductory 3 classes program, and these last 3 days gave me a taste of what Crossfit will be like; NOT EASY.

First, let me give you a bit of a background on where I am coming from... Before Sunday, I did nothing physical except for house chores. I was completely out of shape (still am) and would be winded just from going up a few stairs. My eating habit was nowhere near healthy. Then last Saturday, my brother ran a 60 miles marathon, when 2 years ago he was a couch potato just like me. I was so inspired I decided to do something for myself also.

On Wednesday, I started counting points with WW as well as calories with MyFitnessPal and starting reading a lot about healthy eating and fitness. I had heard a lot about Crossfit in the past so I decided to sign up as they were going to start an introductory class soon. My brother also had sent me a link for a 5K Zombie Run happening September 1st, which I really wanted to be able to do, so I decided to start c25K as well.

So last Sunday I did the first day of c25K. I felt so miserable on those 20 minutes, I just wanted to stop. My husband ran with me and kept me going. I then remembered last year when I had tried c25K for the first time, how I couldn't even run the whole 30 second without stopping. This time I was able to, and that kept me going until the end. Although I was feeling very tired and out of breath, it felt good to take my first step towards a healthier lifestyle.

I woke up the following day, Monday morning, a little bit sore. I wouldn't even call it sore. It was more like I was feeling a little pull on my thighs. I knew I had my first crossfit class that evening, so I decided to keep moving so that wouldn't feel stiff. I'm not going to lie; I was really scared. From what I had heard from other people, I though I was either going to vomit or die on my first class. But I decided to go anyway. It ended up very basic and very educational. There were a group of people that was just beginning there as well and that made me feel comfortable. We learned how to do squats, kettle bell swings, lift weight among other things. At the end of each class, we had a mini workout. That was enough to make me very sore the following days. But I kept going, even though each day the pain was worse and I could barely move. We finally finished our 3 introductory classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I decided to sign up.

This is how I started my Crossfit journey. I hope it will be a great one.