Sweat Angel by Diego!

WOWZERS!!!!!

Wednesday
100 double under
80 kb snatches 24 k/16
60 toes to bar
40 kb squat cleans (1arm/24/16)
20 pistols
100 double unders

It’s about time they got around to the CrossFitters!

What are your thoughts on the CrossFit version of this recent YouTube phenomenon? Did you see yourself in any of the characters? Post in the comments!

Tuesday:

Forza

Front squat

5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 @ 65-75% of your 1RM

Cookie

5 Burpees

10 Games Push ups

20 Double unders

12 Min AMRAP

I want to urge every one to attend Diego’s corrective movement class on Saturday’s at 11:30. It is amazing. I learned so much and I know that it is going to make a difference in the way that I move.

Monday
Find one rep Max Turkish get up
then
Kb ladder:
Every minute on the minute

Sumo Dead Lift High Pull

KB Snatch

1 of each on the the first minute

2 of each on the second minute

3 of each on the third minute…  

until you cannot do the number of reps per minute within that minute.

Cause it seems I ordered more shoes…

January 29 2012

Yes I am late posting…but on the upside of being late I can say…
Happy Birthday Diego!!

The new movement classes on Saturday are such a great addition to the work we are doing in Crossfit. Thanks for bringing this to us coach!

I saw a commercial for Gatorade that really really caught my attention. The new campaign is called “Win from Within”

Win From Within

Interesting campaign….it’s not about the shirt or the zero weight shoes, it’s about what is inside of you… hmmmm shoes.  Shoes. Shoes.Shoes….I have recently become obsessed with my feet and how I am outfitting my feet. As much as I hate to admit it, much of this focus on my feet and the equipment for my feet comes from external sources. I listen to folks at the gym, I watch and listen to the throwers in Albuquerque, I read blogs, and I watch videos on you tube of throwers and Crossfit. I have “drunk the kool-aid” when it comes to my feet.

About six months after I started Crossfit, I bought myself my first pair of flat athletic shoes….my trusty Pumas….I also workout in an old ratty pair of converse. When I first started throwing highland athletics, these are the shoes I threw in.

In the Highland games, the flat shoe makes it hard to Throw some events, not enough traction. So, I eventually bought myself a pair of cleats…ha! Me ….cleats. The cleats made a huge difference in some events. In my favorite event, weight over bar, I feel like the cleats anchor me to the turf until I make the decision to explode and release the weight.

Then came one of the most extreme purchases…boot blades…dang, these are kinda sexy…..they hold your feet firmly to the ground when you throw a hammer…I haven’t quite figured out the form yet with the new boots, but I am working on it. The odd thing is, it wasn’t throwing “badly” without boots. So why did I buy them? Did I get them because they are kinda cool? Did I buy them to give me Scottish highland athletic cred? Did I buy them to made me feel like I was a legitimate athlete? I suppose time and practice will give me my answer about the boots.

Then came my Crossfit shoes. I found myself thinking, if I have special shoes for throwing, I should get the right footwear for Crossfit, right? So then the UPS guy delivers my Inov-8 and later my weight lifting shoes. I feel a little obsessive. Perhaps I have gone way too far, perhaps my old pair of converse are enough? Am I trying to compensate for what I feel like I lack on the inside by buying shoes? The same question exists for me about these new Crossfit shoes that I have about the boot blades.

I am not a serious weightlifter…but if I have these shoes I may look like one….

I really hope that isn’t true, because if it is…I am kinda pathetic.

Crap.

I want to believe there is something to the Gatorade ad…not that I think Gatorade is what I need on the inside…but that so much of what I can do comes from what I believe I can do…BUT there is something about having the right equipment as well….even if having the equipment simply makes me believe I can be better. I do want to be better, a better highland athlete, a better weightlifter, a better…um…athlete. So, I am trying this equipment, see what it gives me, see what I give myself by using it.

So…share…what is the equipment that helps you most?

Hey…how did those red shoes get in there? This is an athletic blog…

mona

If you didn’t come to the noon class or you left early…this is what you missed out on!

Today was awesome. Grace gave every one a great challenge! Notable mention goes out to the 3 athletes that tackled Grace prescribed:

Steve Lovato- (135lbs) 6:44

Susan Bonicillo- (95lbs) 9:50

Mark Martinez- (135lbs) 10:50

Friday’s WOD:
5 rds for time
15 deadlifts 135/85
400 mtr run

Get your speed on…

Thursday:

Cleans – 3, 3, 3

Jerks – 1, 1, 1,1

WOD:

Grace 135/95

Burgener warmup-

check out this video- it’s one of my faves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67oV26VJUzo

Wod:
15 min amrap
6 hang squat snatches 95/65 - Must receive snatch in squat- no power cleans
12 games (hand release) pushups

The hang squat snatch you ask….this is going to take a seriously explosive finish with an emphasis on the receiving position!!! I’m personally scared and excited!

Forza:

Front Squat

5,5,5,5,5

Cookie:

12 knees to elbows
2 overhead jumping lunges 45/25
10 knees to elbows
4 OJL
8 k2e
6 OJL
6k2e
8 OJL
4 K2E
10 OJL
 2 k2e
12 OJL

HELEN!

and I don’t know what the hell I am doing.

January 21, 2012

About a month ago, I went to Inner Strength on Siler & Agua Fria to watch a friend and fellow Scottish Althlete compete in her very first weight lifting competition..olympic style…Snatches and Clean & Jerks.  It was very cool…very inspiring. There were people close to 70 and a 10 year old …all lifting in the same competition.  Well, I ran into BJ Monger from Zia Crossfit and he was asking me about my Scottish stuff, asking how I train.  BJ also asked if I had ever seen the journal MILO.  I had not, so he offered his copy from December to me because the focus of the journal that month was strong man and Scottish Athletics.

Very cool!

So, I meander through MILO….very interesting stuff about training, very cool articles about some throwers….now, I am not normally “slow” , I have been a good researcher most of my life  and I can pick up new skills pretty quickly….but as I read some of these articles I could swear the language had shifted from English to French.  I have no idea what they are talking about or even HOW they are talking about it.  Well, I have very little time til my next set of games….they are at the end of March…so I hit the books so to speak.  There are a couple of throwers groups on Facebook, so I start there; as some of these guys have blogs describing their training sessions.  I look at  some of these…Drifter Lifter, Iron Mind blah blah blah….these sites and the workouts they refer to slide from English to French to German and finally land somewhere in the Cyrillic alphabet.

I realize….I have no idea what the hell I am doing. Not only do I not know how to train, but I can’t even understand the descriptions of how other people train.

WHAT AM I DOING?

I have suddenly become super serious about something I don’t understand and furthermore, I have put myself under certain time constrains to get this work done. I am signed up for the Master’s World Competition in a sport that I haven’t even been participating in for a year.  I also feel this enormous pressure not to let people down.  The man who runs things for New Mexico, Grant, encouraged me to go for it….says I can compete at this level. But the more I look at the numbers some of the women put up and videos of these athletes,  the more I begin to panic.  Then you throw in the training information, that to me, seems to be written in Russian, and I am starting to freak out.

It is funny to me, that this thing that started out strictly as a goof, as fun, has me in such a panic now. Really, at first the fun stuff was getting the kilt, the goofy socks I love so much, the flask!  But at the last competition, the “fun stuff” was no longer fun to me, the lack of sleep, the excessive alcohol consumption all around me …annoyed me.  I wanted to throw well more than I wanted to have fun.  I know there is a balance there…especially at the level I compete at….I mean..really…I am not trying out for the Olympics here…or some Scotch companies endorsement.  I want to make Grant proud, to represent New Mexico well, to represent myself well, to make Undisputed proud of their investment in me.  

I am also worried that this mild panic I have created for myself is making me push in an unhealthy way.  I have been noticing that I work a little too hard almost all the time and end up injuring myself, over and over.  It happened last Sunday while I was throwing…hurt my neck again,  pushed it after my body told me to stop, ended up really hurting.  Then I get frustrated because I can’t “train heavy” and I don’t give myself enough time to recover. I do listen to the coaches when they tell me to go light and focus on form…and that is always the way to go.  As I sit here, sore from my Wendler Progression and the sets of jerks and the sets of Snatches that I did today….I wonder if I am injuring myself unconsciously so that I CAN’T train well….(whatever that means) 

AHHHH 

Alright, maybe I am over thinking that last part a bit, but it is possible. I feel afraid that I don’t really know how to prepare myself well, so if I stay in a constant state of mild injury, I will have some sort of excuse for why I don’t do well the next time I compete.

All I can do right now is stick with the extra work that Coach Heather has given me and remember how much fun it is to do something well.  hmm, focus on form…..practice spinning….find time to practice hammer walks…dammit…I need to work with the pitchfork again…hmmm should add extra kettlebell work…

ooops…there is that panic mind set again.

I will stick with the Snatches & Jerks that Heather gave me. I will take better care of my neck. I will also watch this for inspiration:

Scottish Women

Aren’t they beautiful?

The only person I really need to compete with is me….time to be gentle with myself, cut myself some slack for not understanding how to train, for not understanding weightlifting, for falling down when Grant teaches me a new way to throw, be patient that good form in the Snatch will come with practice….I am so glad Undisputed is here…that you all are so supportive. ‘Cause like I said before..I don’t know what the hell I am doing, but I am glad I am doing it with all of you.

Kisses,

mona