Impossible?

When I saw this at my gym's website today, my jaw dropped:

Strength: back squat 4×5 (35lb, 55lb, 55lb, 55lb)
Conditioning: 
Run 3 laps Jumprope 
100 singles 
80 kettlebell swings (15lb kb)
60 Situps 
40 lunges (20 each leg) 
20 pullups 
10 burpees 
Jumprope 100 singles 
Run 3 laps 

I didn't think I could do it. It just seemed too difficult, too long and too crazy.

Well, guess what? I did it!!!! I was wearing a heart monitor from a watch my brother gave, ( which by the way, I will post about sometime soon) and my heart rate went up to 220. I was definitely going all the way to my limit, but I finished it, alive! A little dizzy, but alive :)

Anniversary Burpees

Wednesday was my wedding anniversary and I kept wondering if I should go work out or just stay home and relax before going out to dinner with my hubby. I ended up deciding to go work out, as well as clean the apartment in the morning and organize my closet all afternoon, hence staying on my feet all day. Go figure! Here is what we had to do at the box:

Strength: shoulder press 4×5 (15lb + 45lb + 35lb + 35lb)
Conditioning: 10 rounds
10 lunges
10 burpees
20 jumprope singles (10 du)

LOL - I'm one of them ;)

For the first time in my Crossfit life (which hasn't been that long), I had to severely scale down the work out by my own decision and not the instructor's, and that feeling really sucks. I officially hate burpees! For the life of me, I can NOT do it quickly enough or more than 5 without falling to the ground losing strenght on my arms and legs. I read somewhere that Crossfit athletes can do 10 -15 burpees every 30 seconds. Seriously? If I can do 5 burpees in 30 seconds, I'm lucky.

So, now that I have very well described my relationship with burpees, you will understand why after the fourth round, I was only doing 5 burpees instead of 10. Even then I was the last one to finish. Took me about 26 minutes. I had been able to do 10 rounds of 10 burpees before, but they were combined with only one other exercise. Plus I have been sore and I even comptemplated not going to crossfit that day, because I hadn't had a rest day since Saturday, and I definitely felt it on my body. But I went anyway and I'm very happy I did. You never great the things you did. You only regret the things you didn't do. :)

The good news is, I did great with my jumprope singles! I think it's just about finding the right kind of rope and the right size. Instead of waiting until the last minute to grab a rope for the exercise, I went to look for one before the workout and made sure I measured them around my neck and tried them. The result was great performance! :)

The lunges were alright...difficult but not impossible. I may have skipped one or two in some rounds, but they sure kicked my butt. I have some bruises on my knees, which I'm sure came from them.
It was a good week overall. I pushed myself to work out four days in a row, which might not have been the greatest decision since I'm still sore to this day and have bruises on my knees, but I'm sure in the long run it will only do me good. That is another reason why I didn't go running this evening. My knees were still sore and so were my legs, so I decided to take two days of rest instead of just one. Plus it is raining.
I am hoping to go running tomorrow night though. My first 20 minutes!!! I just hope I can do it :)

Bottom line is, I am happy I went to the box on Wednesday, and after taking a nice shower afterwards and getting all dressed up, I enjoyed a very nice anniversary dinner with my husband, having two glasses of delicious wine and great italian food, guilt free!

No More Burpee Tears

I was supposed to go to a 9:30am crossfit class this morning, my lazy self got the best of me. It was raining, cold, and I had had a tough time falling asleep yesterday. So when my alarm went off at 7:30am, I decided to turn it off and ignore it. The reason I was supposed to go at 9:30am instead of 4pm which is when I usually go on Wednesdays, is because I was supposed to work overtime today from 3pm - 8pm so I was going to miss the 4pm class. So I woke up at 10:30am instead, and decided I would do a at home work out to make up for my lazyness. I decided to a past at home work out:

10rds: 10 walking lunges each leg and 10 Burpees

This is the same one they have us when the gym was closed for renovation. The last time I had tried this workout, I cried towards the end. It was incredibly difficult and painful. I finished it in 28 minutes.

So I went for a run around the block as a warm up, and did this work out for the second time in my crossfit lifetime.

It took me 28 minutes to finish again. I didn't cry this time though.. But I realized, I probably didn't do the whole 10 rounds the last time I did it. Maybe I thought I did, but I know I did much faster this time. My guess is that I only did 9 rounds the last time, which means I probably cut down 4 minutes from last time's time. But I will never know.

This is the problem with cheating in crossfit. You are really cheating on yourself when you skip rounds or don't time yourself properly. Not that I did it on purpose last time, but still...

I also got a bruise on my hand from the pushups..my first Crossfit bruise :)

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!

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!