Walking Tall

Well, last night had 2 more hours of stilt walking lessons. It is not difficult, but for me it is anxiety producing, until I can get used to / over the fear of falling---which is actually not as much of a problem as it seems. I wear in-line skate kneepads, and there is a technique to falling. So, it's all a mental game right now. Worked out this morning, not any really structured workout. I guess I'm still feeling a little sluggish from the weekend overtraining. I have to observe that I need more time to recover than I used to. Not that that makes me old or anything. But I do need more time. So, this morning:

HEY warm-up: table, kneeling mountain, prone mountain, table, incline plane, down dog, incline plane, standing mountain, forward flexion, front warrior. (just thought I'd throw this in.)

15 push-ups
8 chin-ups (light jump at the start)
walking lunges

Then people came in from class and I started doing what they were doing which was a static hold workout:

handstand (2 sets accumulated 1.5 minutes)
chin hold at 90 degrees (accumulated 30 sec over 3 sets)
wall sit w/2X16 K (30 seconds, then stopped because knees were really protesting)
one-foot balance holding 16 K overhead (30 s each foot)
leg curls with stability ball (30 s each leg held at flexed starting position)

Have a lot of meetings today. Need to really pay attention to keeping a balance between work and everything else...Hence, stiltwalking until 9:30 at night...

Owweee

Well, I was pretty toasted after Friday's workout. Not all of my, but my arms and upper chest really protested the 50 yards of handstand/wall walks from Friday morning. So, I did the mature thing and after subbing burpee girlz class on Saturday morning, took the class. It was a lot of fun. 15/15 workout 8 minutes for each set:

burpees/oompas
running/d-ball carry (30 lbs. held overhead)
skaters/jump squats
touchdowns/around the world

I did it and loved it (at least the parts of me that weren't hurting from Friday loved it). But, by the time I got home, reality set in, I had a tension headache that grew worse through the day, and no amount of soaking, heating pad, etc., seemed to bring relief. So, I slept a long time that night, got up and took a bike ride on Sunday, and took it easy for the rest of the day. So, not a productive weekend, but a good one. Slept in this morning, so missed workout. May get back to it tonight, definitely tomorrow morning. Have fun ladies!!

So Happy Together

Its so cool to have iheartburpees here to play for a few days. We've been spending a lot of time at the gym. Last night, we worked out together by just practicing different olympic lifts, and then burpees played while I trained a couple clients. Then we went on a little tour of Austin.

This morning, burpees and I both assisted Adam teaching KB swings to all the new people in the Crossfit class. After class, we did an awesome workout together:

12 overhead squats (with barbells)
12 snatches each arm
12 chins
row 500 m on C2
12 pushups (did feet on box, hindu, and alligator)

Three times through.

We hung out in Austin more during the day, then back to the gym for more training, playing, and teaching. I definitely think we are going to wear ourselves out by Monday. :)

Yowwzaa

Fun, fun, fun last night. Took a stilt-walking class in preparation for a show I'm going to do this summer. The stilts I was learning on weren't very tall, but tall enough to feel scary. Got to walking forward, backwards, and sideways without needing to hold anyone's hand for balance. Really looking forward to feeling like I can dance a little on them. Anyway, the stilts strapped onto my legs just below the knee, and were over-balanced to the outside, so each step really pulled hard to the outside. It was HEAVY push inner shinbone in and forward feedback. My feet and ankles felt a little tweaky this morning, but I still had a good workout:

50 yards wall walk
run around the building
50 yards pole climb/cliff hangers
run around the building
50 yards lunges (2X16K)
run around the building
50 yards broad jumps
run around the building

For the wall walk and the pole climb I substituted 50 box lunges (each side) and jump rope because I didn't want to take my shoes off and on. Play hard!!

Dragging in this morning

But I did make it to a workout. This was one-armed kettle bell workout 3 each side for a total of 6, 6 X through.

1-arm cleans--28 K
1-arm press--20 K
1-arm front squats--28 K
1-arm swings--28 K
(1-arm snatches) more advanced Didn't do these.

I did 4 sets not six. Really felt slow on this workout. I'm finding that my lower back is acting up on cleans, and I think it's because my legs and hamstrings have become more activated which means that I don't flex as readily at the hips (hamstrings are tighter) or maybe I'm not integrating the action of the legs into action of the hips smoothly and my lower back is taking a tiny hit with each clean. Or maybe my hip flexors are getting too tight and pulling at the lower back. I'll check it out when I go for my massage on Thursday. I'm a little unsteady with my form on the presses, I could press more, if I had confidence in controlling it. That is also why I didn't do the snatches. I'll need some one on one coaching for a bit before I really master it. I may go for a run tonight, just to get a little energy flowing. Be strong!!

It's not you, it's me

So I designed this workout specifically for two clients, but it was so good, I've used it with five clients now, and its been intense for every one that did it. Everyone keeps asking "Why is this so hard???" during the workout, thus the name, the "Its not you, its me" workout. :)

I did the workout myself this morning...

15 cable cleans
15 overhead squats
15 pushups
15 push presses
400 m row
x3

It was pretty good. I used a 45lb bar for the OHSs and 2x30lbs DBs for the pushpresses. I went pretty easy on the cable cleans, with my magenta cable. Afterwards I did a little jumping rope. I should have done situps too, but Adam was training someone, so I had to take off anyway.

I can't wait until tomorrow! Whooooo-hooooooo! More havoc and chaos in Austin! :D

The Beast

Ha ha. My boss came up with this workout and called it The Beast. He's such a nut.

Anyway, I did it today, and it was pretty nice.

50 pullups (I did jump chins...such a poor excuse for a pullup)
50 box jumps
50 KB swings (used the 24kg)
50 burpees
50 situps
50 pushups
50 back extensions
800 m run
50 KB cleans (did 10 with 2x12kg and decided they didn't count-then used 2x16kg for 50)

It was good. Took me about 30 minutes or so... The KB cleans were supposed to be after the situps, but I didn't want to be going out for the run when my client showed up, so I left the cleans until the end, thinking they would take the most time. I don't like jump chins. If I didn't have a time constraint today, I would've subbed 90 degree chins with the jungle gym. That would've been much better. My pushups have been a struggle again lately. I think I need to start doing a lot of pushups all the time, because then they eventually feel easier when I do that. Same thing with situps. Need to do lots and lots of them all the time...

mellow workout

Still recovering from my weekend in Vegas! Pictures are above, of 1)The Bellagio Fountains, 2)me in front of Cesar's Palace, and 3)my friend Sara and I out at a lounge. It was a lot of fun, but not as much sleep and more alcohol than I needed.

I did today's body power class, 3 sets of 20 of:


pushups with PPU


renegade rows with 16k's


pistols


box step ups with 16k's (high box)


PW curls


PW pikes





The workout sounds hard, but I was tired. Probably due to my crazy weekend. I did sleep 12 hours last night, and will probably put in a long night of sleep tonight too.

CRAZYLegs

Hey! I ran in the Crazylegs on Saturday. It's the first time I ever participated in any sort of event like that. It was 5 miles. I ran 53 minutes. Felt good, refreshed, energized at the end. Had a beautiful relaxing bikeride on Saturday (only about 15 miles). Did this morning's workout on my own: 2-3 set, 20 reps of everything each set, going through like a circuit:

pushups (full, no resistance)
renegade rows (10 each side) 16 k
foot up lunges (10 each side) 16 k x 2
box step ups (10 each side) 16 k (held on opposite shoulder from starting leg)
PW pike-ups (used stability ball)
PW leg curls (used stability ball)

I made it through twice. I liked working with my core stability using the kettlebell on one shoulder with the step ups (used a stool just above knee height). I'm working with my form more than range of motion on the lunges, but I feel like I'm ready to start challenging myself there. Weather here is beautiful! I'm intoxicated by the sunshine!!! Be strong! Smile big!

Sleep IS the key

And I am not getting enough. I need to sleep more, I know it.

I struggled through two pathetic rounds of "Fight Gone Bad" this morning, with less than the prescribed weight, and then decided to call it quits. (FBG = 1 minute at each the C2 rower, box jumps, wall ball, barbell high pulls, and barbell push presses; no rest between exercises, 1 minute rest between rounds). Then I did 10 pushups and 30 situps and decided not to tax my body's resources anymore. Oh yeah, earlier this morning I did tabata squats (20 sec on/10 sec off for 8 sets or 4 min...rest is in the squat position, not standing).

I know I need more sleep. My quads are tender and painful to the touch today too. Owwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Taking it easy

Did go to workout this morning after taking yesterday off. Still a little sore, but not as bad as yesterday. Today's workout was as many reps as possible going for 1 minute on each exercise. The exercises were:

cleans
presses
front squats
deadlifts
renegade rows
PW crawling

You were supposed to do 2-3 warm-up sets of each exercise before tackling the full minute set. Well. I didn't even come close to doing this workout. I knew it would kick me, and I'm feeling a little too sore and depleted at the moment, so I just did what I felt like of each exercise until I could go further. Took a break, went back to whatever I wanted to work with, and finished up in about 30 minutes. I can't even reconstruct what I did, it was that unstructured. When I'm more rested, I want to come back to it and see what I can do. Be strong!!

Owwww!!!!

Wow, I am soooo sore today! Beside the workout yesterday, I also messed around with the KBs for a while, and I don't think realized how much I did. I forgot to put that in my entry for yesterday...I also did 4x30 situps and 3x15 pushups. Everything is a little sore, and my quads are super, super sore.

Anyway, today, I decided to try to run the soreness out with 3 x 10min intervals. It didn't work. Oh well. My first interval felt good, the second was a little harder, and the third was a real struggle. Hopefully I'll be able to work out in the morning. :) Be strong!

BINGO

Today's workout was a bingo card, with different exercises on each square. The idea was to call out BINGO everytime we got it, and to do it as many ways as possible in 30min. I wanted to cover the whole card, but fell a bit short of 30 minutes. I finished it in about 35 minutes or so. I liked the format of the workout.

Its my birthday today, and I'm headed to Vegas for a bachelorette party. I'm pretty excited, except I'm pretty sure none of these ladies is going to work out with me while I'm there. Ah well. I'll do my best to get some mini-workouts in this weekend, nothing too intense (unless you count dancing!) I'll get some pics up when I get back!

Crossroads again

This morning's workout:
Line drills with several laps of running around the building. Then we did a bear crawl all the way around the building. Probably about 200 m. Then I did 150 thrusters - I started out with 2x30lb dumbbells, but it was too much. I moved down to 2x25lbs and it still took me a looooong time to finish.

I think I am still sleep deprived. I have NOT been sleeping much lately. So much is going on. SIL got in a car accident last night. I swear, its always one thing or another with her. She's OK, and the accident wasn't her fault.

Our evil corporate landlord wants to raise the rent AGAIN on this little slum we call home, SO I contacted a realtor and have started shopping for mortgages. If we're going to pay with blood for our living quarters, it might as well be for something that we'll get some return on. We've been pleasantly surprised by the selection of homes in our price range, as well as the mortgage programs offered to us so far.

Finally, I may be approaching a career crossroads. I MIGHT have some real answers about the whole career situation, which you guys have been familiar with, next week. I also got a very interesting, exciting, and unexpected offer for another career option today, which I would love to go after if I wasn't to committed and invested in career choice #1. So I need to do a lot of thinking and praying in the next week or so to figure out what I want to do.

Sometime next week, I think I may do this workout: 150 burpees, 150 swings, 150 thrusters, 150 wall ball. It might hurt. The goal will be to finish in under 60 minutes.

Here's something fun...my dear friend taught me how to knit this past weekend. Here's my first knitted work ever:

Still pushing...

Made it into the 6:30 again this morning... It might become a habit. We did 6 sets of:
Handstand hold (until fatigue)
PW rollouts (hold extended position for 5 counts, then do 5 reps regular pace)
Front Squats (hold bottom of position for 5 counts, then do 5 reps regular pace)
PW leg curls (hold starting position for 5 counts, then do 5 reps regular pace)

I used 2 20kgs for the front squats and on the hand stand, worked with unweighting my left hand then my right hand in preparation for one-armed. I didn't use resistance on the leg curls. I'm really working on getting better extention at my hips, and I know I'll just compensate in some way with weight and shorten my hip flexors, which means, no resistance for me for a while.

I went for a little run last night when I got home from work. I was so slow, even though I felt wound up with energy. I signed up to do the Crazylegs this Saturday. I've never done any sort of event before, so I think it will be a good experience for me. Be strong!!!

packing in the workouts

Again, I have a short workout week. I'm headed to Vegas for a friend's bachelorette party this weekend, so I need to push myself the days I have! I like this format though: a few days of hardcore double workouts, then a few days of R&R!

Yesterday did an IGOUGO workout pyramid (you do one rep, partner does one, you do 2, partner does 2, so on until failure, then back down the pyramid). I did:
pushups (made it to 11)
chins (made it to 6)
vertical jumps (made it to 10)
pw curls with 20# (made it to 9)

Today my chest and triceps are sore!

Then I did a 5-mile run, from MBG to the Sheraton and back. Nice easy pace, took about 50 min.

Today I did the FIT class run/slide/crawl that BBG described, plus similar core exercises.

Tonight I plan to do some yoga and balance work. All in all, a good day of work, and I feel great!

High Energy!

Took Monday off after the weekend and also had a late class. Today, almost didn't get myself into the gym for 6:30, but after a little tea and cereal felt a boost of energy and got over there. Did 4 sets of partnered: run-run, slide-slide, crawl-crawl for 5 minute intervals. The first two sets were with 1 partner, the second 2 were with groups of three (longer rest interval). I regretted eating before the workout, but did o.k., didn't get too intense. We finished with power wheel intervals 4 sets of 20 sec crawling-20 sec pike ups-20 sec rockers 30 sec rest. Ouch. I could really feel that my form was a lot weaker than it used to be, but I'll just do what I can do for now and appreciate change. Be strong!!!!

Foggy Monday morning

Foggy...in my head, and outside! My friend and I had way too much fun this weekend, leaving me very, very sleep-deprived...which made my workout this morning interesting. :)

50 wall ball
Run 1080 m
35 wall ball
Run 800 m
25 wall ball
Run 400 m

Even though I was tired, I thought I would burn through the workout at a good pace. I started out using the 15 lb med ball, but Adam came over and made me switch to the 20 lb ball...so that slowed me down a bit. It was a great workout though...and I'm glad that Adam made me use the 20. I was a little surprised I could do it, so I was really happy about that, even though it took me a lot longer.

Beautiful weekend!!

Finally! It was sunny and warm both days. Did 30 miles on my bike Saturday, and 40 on Sunday. Also raked out my backyard which is no small feet as it's not grass but prairie flowers and allergies prevented me from doing any work out there last year. So, cleared out a lot of dead brush, sawed down a couple over grown limbs from trees...A good workout in addition to the bikeride. Shoulders are sore and my thoracic spine feels stiff. I wonder if I have a good position for my seat or when I ride. Have to check with my bikeman.

back at it

Yesterday I did 2 workouts, to make up for my upcoming weekend. I'll be in FL, and my only activity will be applying sunscreen. Unless I can get the BF to run with me on the beach, that is :)

In the morning I did 4 one-mile repeats. First one was in 11:30 (ouch!). They got progressively faster, but my last one was only 9:45. Ah well. At least I ran. It was beautiful outside for once, too.

Then in the afternoon, I did FIT class. We did 100 yds of each:
traveling burpees
slides
crawl
crab walk
lunge walk
sprint
broad jumps.

I did it in a Power Sports Trainer, which was fun but hard. I also did it on the bike path, so got quite a few stares in my getup. Which is always amusing.

Today's workout is listed as a prison workout of Dball clean, lunge, press, walk to start. Starting at 10 reps, going to one rep. I'm hoping to use the 60#. There, now that I said that, I have to use the 60#!