Day Job

Wahhh! I’ve been away for so long 😦 boo!  My intent was to write blog posts in advance, hoard them, and then post intermittently throughout last week.  Why?  Well because last week was Furniture Market.

Let me tell you about what I do when I’m not at CrossFit or cooking food.  I work…in the retail furniture industry…as an online merchandising manager.  It’s kind of like a fancy way of saying that I choose (merchandise) the products (furniture, rugs, accessories, etc.) that my company sells on our website (online).  It’s a pretty sweet set-up.  I went to college at High Point University and graduated with an Interior Design degree.  There is obviously some overlap between what I do now and what I studied in school, so I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing.

Anywho, this may be something that you don’t know about the furniture biz:  twice a year (October and April) there is a week long “market” that takes place in High Point, NC.  The entire downtown area of High Point, which is normally abandon-looking, turns in to the most vibrant, lively city in the world.  There are people EVERYWHERE from all over the world. It’s sort of like “Fashion Week” except for furniture.  Furniture Market is the one week (twice a year) where furniture manufacturers set up these BEAUTIFUL showrooms filled with furniture to premier all of their new furniture designs for the upcoming season.  Then, furniture buyers (retailers, interior designers, etc.) come to the market and purchase products for their stores or their clients and that’s what you (the consumer) end up seeing and or buying in the furniture store or online when you go shopping!  It’s a pretty big deal for the furniture industry.  There is another Furniture Market in Las Vegas that is also twice a year, but the first Furniture Market was in High Point, NC, so to me it really is the Furniture Market–but I’m also biased because I live here…soo…

So why was I unable to post last week?  What is it about Furniture Market that had me so distracted?  I WAS TIRED!! and my feet hurt.  I know I sound like a whiny baby, but really, furniture market takes a lot out of a person.  The day looks something like this:  Get into work at 8:00am, head downtown (10 minute drive for me), find parking (nearly impossible), walk to and from and around furniture showrooms for the next 10-12 hours–stopping occasionally to test out a piece or once for lunch and maybe a snack in the afternoon.  The great part for me is that I get to come home ot my own house and sleep in my own bed during market.  Anyone who doesn’t live locally (majority of people) have to stay in hotels all week.

Let’s see, because I merchandise the website, I have about 200+ different furniture manufacturers that I would have liked to have visited.  However, the market only lasts 5 days.  You do the math.  On average I spend about 30 minutes to an hour in each showroom.  I ended up going to market 4 out of 5 days (had to take one day to rest) and saw 43 different showrooms.  It was a pretty solid market for me.  I was targeting a lot of new manufacturers that I’d like to begin selling on our site, so I was actually pretty successful in that respect.

The good news:  I did make it to CrossFit every day that I planned on going (I rested on Thursday) despite my poor, screaming feet.  And furniture market enables me to be up and walking around throughout the day instead of being chained to my desk–which is where I normally am.  So that’s always a nice change of pace.

The bad news: I had to go to the evening CrossFit classes since I had to get to work earlier than usual.  Even though there is lots of free food at market, most of it was NOT paleo. And, I couldn’t really muster the energy to write any good posts at the end of the night.

So even though I love seeing the pretty, new furniture, I am glad that market has come and gone.  See you again in October!  Back to my usual 6:30am CrossFit classes!

And now you know what I do during the day when I’m not at the box!  FURNITURE, that’s what!

Early Morning WODs

I am a morning person.  It’s pretty much in my blood.  My dad goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up at 5am, every single day.  He’s done this for as long as I can remember.  Of course in my teen years and during college waking up early wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but that’s because I was usually staying up until well past midnight.  Now that I’m an “adult” with a full time job, I value my sleep, and I try my best to go to bed at a decent hour-9:00 is ideal, 10:00 is okay; 11:00 will still allow me to function the next day.

The whole early to bed, early to rise thing became a lot more important when I made the decision to start working out at the 6:30 Crossfit class.  Previously, I had been going to the 5:30 or 6:30 evening classes, but there were several drawbacks with this.

First, the classes were crowded.  Don’t get me wrong, I definitely enjoyed seeing a lot of my Crossfit friends, but it’s tough to get in a good workout and receive the right amount of coaching when there are 25 other people in your class.

Second, I had to pack an extra bag to take to work which became one more step in my nightly routine.  Then, if I got wrapped in something at work or held up in a meeting at the end of the day it made it difficult for me to make it to the classes.  There were a few times when I either didn’t make the class at all or came really close to missing the class (as in, changing clothes in the car while driving down the highway–not a good idea).  This added more stress to my day because I would worry so much that I wasn’t going to make it to class and then if I did miss class I’d be so upset that I wasn’t able to work out. No good.

Lastly,  when working out at night it leaves very little time in the evening to prepare and eat dinner, relax, shower, unwind or do anything really.  My routine was essentially:  Wake up at 6:30, get ready for work, get to work by 7:45 or 8:00, leave work by 5:00 (but usually not until 6:00), 6:30 CrossFit class, 8:15 dinner, shower, bed by 10:00, do it all over again.  EXHAUSTING!

After about a week of that schedule, I realized that I needed a change.  First, I had to make sure that I really could attend the 6:30am class and make it to work on time.  Well one Monday morning I decided to try it, and by golly I was able to do it ALL and I even had time to make a breakfast smoothie before leaving the house!  It was awesome!  So ever since then, unless there is some unusual event or something going on, I work out at 6:30 every morning.  So my new routine became:  Asleep by 10:00pm, up by 6:00am, out the door by no later than 6:20am, working out by 6:30am, home around 7:40am, shower, get ready, out the door by 8:20am.  I am very lucky that both the box and work are about 10 minutes away.

Here are my tips for waking up early for a morning work out:

1.  You have to be motivated and WANT to work out early in the morning.  If you don’t want or need to wake up early, then by all means sleep in-different strokes, for different folks ya’ll! I’ve found that working out first thing in the morning is great for me, but it may not be for everyone.  The advantages for me are that:  I get my work out done for the day.  I feel energized and productive after working out, and those feelings stick with me throughout the day, which usually makes for an awesome day, no risk of not getting to the box for a WOD, more free time at the end of the day.

2.  PREPARATION IS KEY.  There are several things that you must prepare the night before.  This is just my list, yours could be different.  Just try to think about your morning routine, what sort of things have the potential to slow you down in the morning?  What can you do ahead of time to speed up your morning ritual?

• WOD clothes, picked out and easily accessible
• Water bottle ready to go
• If you take a bag with you to the box, have that packed and ready too
• Pre-WOD food (I usually eat a piece of fruit, some people eat a full meal, some people eat nothing, just listen to your body)
• Post-WOD food aka breakfast.  I usually either had something pre-made like my egg muffins or I make sure that I know what I’m going to eat ahead of time, so I’m not scrambling to figure it out
• Outfit for work
• Lunch packed and ready to grab from the fridge

3.  Go to sleep early.  Again, everyone is different.  I preform best after having 8 full hours of sleep, but some people can run off of as little as 6.  Whatever your magic number is, make sure you are going to sleep early enough, so you can wake up in the morning without feeling groggy or fatigued.  Even if you had the motivation to work out, you will lose all your motivation if you only get four hours of sleep and wake up feeling tired.  Like I said, I’ve been trying to go to bed at 10:00, so I can wake up around 6:00am, but my new goal is to get on a 9pm-5am sleep cycle.  For two reasons:  1.  I think I would enjoy having some time to myself in the morning to read or write blog posts 2.  There’s been talk of our 6:30am class moving to 6:00am (which would be awesome), so just in case that happens I want to be prepared.

If you’re considering switching up your WOD routine, plan it out and ease in to the transition.  Start with two days a week, then three, then however many you want.  Setting small goals will help keep you motivated.  See if working out first thing in the morning makes a difference in your day.

Time for bed! So long!

Whole Life Challenge Wrap Up

Good Morning!

As you may have read previously, I participated in the Whole Life Challenge from February 16 to April 11. 55 days of FUN.  Now that the challenge is over I’m going to do a simple pro’s and con’s list, and then also share what I learned from my challenge, what practices stuck, and what I’m planning for the future.  Settle in, it’s going to be good!

First: I came in 5th place in my gym (about 45ish people).  No it wasn’t first place like I was shooting for, but everyone at our gym made TREMENDOUS improvements. And it makes me so proud to be apart of such a great community.

My baseline work out scores:

• before: 158
• after: 179

the work out was:

• 12 Minute AMRAP
• 1000m row
• 60 air squats
• 50 hand release push ups
• 40 ab mad sit ups
• 30 burpees
• (start back to squats if finish one round)

My body measurement scores (can’t believe I’m posting these on the internet, but…)

• before: hips = 41; waist = 32
• after:  hips = 38; waist = 28

Challenge Pros:

• The website keeps you accountable
• It wasn’t just about nutrition/paleo eating
• Mobilization really made a difference for me
• Could track progress with your body measurements and baseline work outs
• Body weight wasn’t really a concern, since everyone would most likely be building muscle to replace any body fat

Challenge Cons:

• 2 months is a long time
• I don’t think bonus points should have been used for food…I found myself banking on using those bonus points.  I feel like they were enabling me.
• It was frustrating when the site didn’t work properly
• I think rest days should have been incorporated, or at least maybe having like a “yoga day” or something.  55 days straight of active recovery work outs is kind of a lot.  Plus your body needs to rest in order to build your muscles.

What I learned/what stuck:

• Taking a supplement.  I’m going to stick with the fish oil, and potentially add a probiotic.
• Mobilizing. why was I not doing this before?  It feels SO good, and makes SUCH a difference. I need to take some time to catch up on MobilityWOD  and try some more/different techniques.
• Drinking water.  ugh.  I mean how many times have people said “you should drink more water” or “drinking water is key to a healthy life” or many other variations of those phrases.  countless, that’s how many times.  But was I listening?  Nope, not really.  I’m a champ at hydrating before big races or long rungs, but I do not consistently hydrate.  Well, now I do!  I noticed a major difference in my body when I drank at least half my body weight in water.
• My skin benefits from eating clean and drinking water.  Again, not sure why I wasn’t listening to the people who have been preaching this all along, but now I finally get it.  Sugar + my skin do NOT agree.  Same with dairy and gluten.  I feel like someone would be able to tell everything I ate during the past week just by looking at my face, they wouldn’t even need to ask me.
• I snack way too much.  Even though the snacks were paleo, I should still chill out with the amount of snacking that I do throughout the day.

What I’m planning for the future:

• WHOLE 30 CHALLENGE Maybe in May or June?  I would like for my whole family to do this with me too.  It’s going to take some persuading though.  There’s even a Whole 9 seminar in Northern VA on June 22 that I’m thinking about attending.
• No more cheat meals. I heard a great quote while watching a food and nutrition documentary last week (it deserves its’ own separate post). Basically they said by eating “cheat meals” once a week is like a heroine addict saying “Well, I only do heroine on Sundays, so it’s okay…”  Obviously this does sound a little extreme, but I interpreted it to mean:  Polluting your body is polluting your body no matter what it is with or how often you do it.  Just because I eat jelly beans once a week doesn’t mean that it is good for my body; I’m filling my body with garbage.  So, no more of that!
• Food Journal.  I’m interested to see how certain foods make me feel and what affect they have on me when I eat them.  I’m currently trying to come up with a sweet printable to share with everyone.  The journal will not only include spots for recording what food is consumed, but also a place to makes notes about how you feel throughout the day, a place to record a work out, work out performance, and SLEEP!

All in all, the I would highly recommend the Whole Life Challenge to anyone who is looking for some motivation to change their life in a positive way! It’s totally worth it and it is a lot of fun.  Not to mention, there are THOUSANDS of other people who are participating in the challenge right along with you, so there is always someone to talk to or provide encouragement.

I’m off to the box to get my WOD on this morning! Hope everyone has a super fabulous weekend!!!

Epic Watch Fail

Good Morning everyone!!

I just wanted to share my morning WOD mishap from today. We had another birthday WOD, it was:

35 burpees
800m run
35 pull ups
800m run
35 ab mat sit ups
800m run
35 kb swings @ 35#
800m run
35 burpees

Because there was a lot of running in the WOD I decided to wear my Garmin watch to see what my pace was during the running and also to keep an eye on my time. Bad decision. During the KB swings I let the bell get behind me and it flopped over and smacked into my wrist… SHATTERING the face of my watch!!!

I attribute this to my poor wrist strength. It is now going to be a top priority for me to improve my wrist strength and mobility. Once I figure out how to do that I’ll be sure to let y’all know.

Anyways, I guess I’ll try to see if Garmin can replace the face on my watch (everything else works fine). Unless anyone has a better idea?

Lesson: don’t wear watches to CrossFit especially if there are kettle bell swings in the WOD!!

10K & Podcasts

Helllllooooo Friends.  I feel like this week has just been three Mondays in a row, I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday.  Sheesh. So a few things…

First, my cousin Kathryn ran the Boston Marathon.  She is safe- thank the Lord. Chelsie (my roommate) and I were actually at work walking to Starbucks, and Chelsie got a Fox News alert on her phone stating that there were two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  I immediately went into a mild state of panic.  I didn’t have my phone on me so I couldn’t call or text anyone, but as soon as I got back to my desk I texted Kathryn and her sister (my other cousin) Jen to see if anyone knew anything.  Then I called my Dad and had him call my aunt.  It took about 5 minutes but I finally heard back from everyone.  My Aunt was able to talk to Kathryn who was about a half a mile back from the finish line when the bombs went off.  THANK GOODNESS.  It turns out she was only half a mile back because she made an unexpected water stopped at mile 25.  Scary.  That’s all I have to say.

I wish I could say that I was shocked or that it is so hard to believe that something like that would happen, but to to honest, after the significant increase in public shootings/bombs/explosions etc. in the past 5 years it’s not all that surprising. Is that not the most depressing/saddening thing in the world?  Does that make what happened any less devastating or despicable?  absolutely not.  I think I’ve just resigned to the fact that, I’ll never understand what in the world would possess someone to want to kill and hurt people in such a malicious way. It just makes me so sad.

Second, my BFF Christine and I ran the Ukrop’s Monument Ave 10K in Richmond on Saturday.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day for the race. Last year it was rainy and gross, so 70’s and sunny was such a major improvement.  Our time wasn’t really anything to brag about – 59:30 but that’s okay, we  just ran the race to be able to run together and do something fun.  The race is HUGE though there were actually 40,000 participants.  SO MANY people.  It’s such a great race though, there are live bands about every half mile and there are so many beautiful historic homes along the way.

PODCASTS.  Jacob is probably sick of hearing me talk about podcasts. I literally start every phone conversation with, “So, I was listening to this podcast today and they said that…” But I love them!  They are so informative!  It’s like being able to read a book while I’m working.  GENIUS!  Anyways, I told ya’ll about Barbell Shrugged last week which is definitely still my favorite, but I wanted to share a few other ones that you guys should check out too.

Fat Burning Man with Abel James

source: apple.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He has a lot of great, smart people on his show.  The podcast topics range from talking about supplements to paleo to just general good health practices.  Abel is a wonderful interviewer, and he asks all of the right questions.

Super Nutrition Academy Health Class with Yuri Elkaim

source: apple.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yuri is awesome!  He is a registered holistic nutritionist, former professional soccer player, and Canadian! His podcast topics are usually geared towards nutrition.  I share a lot of same views that he has so it’s great to hear him confirm all of my beliefs and go in to depth about why and how certain things affect us the way that they do.

The Paleo Solution Podcast  with Robb Wolf

source: robbwolf.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Robb Wolf, what else do you want me to say?  This guy is practically the Godfather of the Paleo movement.  He’s always talking about the latest and greatest when it comes to nutrition and every once in a while he throws in a fitness related podcast, mostly CrossFit related.  They can get off topic sometimes but it doesn’t matter because they are really funny.

Paleohacks with Clark Danger 

Last week was the first episode of this podcast, but I really enjoyed it.  Clark Danger had Dave Asprey on the show and he was actually promoting his book:  Better Baby Book .  He shared some great general health information, and had some really good info about how to “work out” your brain.  Stuff’s legit!

Your homework for this week:  Go listen to one of these podcasts!  You will not regret it!!! They’re especially great for long commutes in the morning or traveling in general!

Announcement

It’s Friday at 9:50pm and I’m writing a blog post.  Yeah I’m 23 and I’m lame.  Just kidding! I’m at home because I’m running the Richmond, Monument Ave 10K tomorrow morning.  Our wave goes at 9:05 so I’m getting ready to hit the hay.

I just wanted to drop in and say that…

I DID MY FIRST KIPPING PULL UP TODAY!

Say what?  It only took me 5ish months of practicing and getting stronger, but I did my first real life kipping pull up today.  I was so excited!  I was actually really surprised because I wasn’t expecting to get my chin above the bar.  It was after the WOD and I ran an extra mile afterwards because the WOD was short, so I was pretty tired, but hey I got up there.  I even went back for more.  I didn’t quite get two in a row, but I did do several more pull ups which means that it wasn’t just a random stroke of strength, I really am getting strong!  YES!

The sad part… we did not take any pictures or videos.  So stupid.  I need to remind myself to take more pictures since I actually have somewhere to post them now.

I’d like to think that I looked like this:

Source

But I probably didn’t.

Alright, it’s bed time for me.  Tomorrow will be my first road race since August 2012.  And I’ve only been training minimally, mostly because I REFUSED to not go to CrossFit every day.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’ll post about it sometime tomorrow or Sunday.  Stay Tuned.

Have a SUPER weekend, and GO WORK OUT! You won’t regret it! 🙂

Custom Stuff for CrossFitters

It’s Tuesday!  I want to talk about WODs for a hot second.  Yesterday was a “birthday WOD.”  Our coach does this awesome thing where he lets our gym members choose the WOD on their birthday.  They usually suck, but that just goes to show how legit our gym members are, we like to challenge each other.

Monday’s WOD

31 minute AMRAP (longest AMRAP of all time)

• Run 800m
• 31 overhead walking lunges with a plate 45#/25#
• 31 burpee pull ups

Such a good WOD.  Good because it was HARD.  By the end of the work out I was legitimately exhausted.  I made it through 3 complete rounds.  I started to head out the door to start my run but I only had 10 seconds left, so mostly I was just thinking to myself: where do you think you’re going?  I modified my burpee pull ups since I’m still lacking in the pull up department.  Although I’m pretty sure I did a jumping pull up yesterday.  My legs were flailing around and I’m not sure that my chin actually made it above the bar, but hey that’s progress.

Tuesday’s WOD = March Madness WOD

Our coach made everyone fill out a bracket before the first game started, and then based on your predictions determined what you had to do for the WOD.  AND… if you didn’t complete a bracket you had to do the entire work out.

For time:

• 64 burpees (32 games x 2 burpees)
• 80 wall balls (16 games x 5 WB)
• 56 KB swings (8 games x 7 KBS)
• 40 push up (4 games x 10 PU)
• 40 air squats (2 games x 20 squats)
• 1 mile run (championship game)

I must have had a pretty good bracket.  My WOD looked more like this:

• 24 burpees
• 30 wall balls
• 28 kettle bell swings
• 30 push ups
• 20 air squats
• NO mile run, because I picked Louisville to win- good job Kayla!

I will say though, I was especially tired this morning.  Not sure why.  I was also really sore–I’m thinking it was from the overhead lunges yesterday.  I’ve been bouncing around the idea of taking creatine powder and maybe protein powder, but I just can’t decide.  I feel like I hear both good and bad things about them.  Plus,  there are so many different options out there I’m not sure how to decide which will be right for me.  Ah, the world of supplements, so overwhelming!

On to that custom stuff that I really wanted to talk about…

Have you heard of Custom Fit Meals?  THEY ARE DELICIOUS.  And convenient.  I first noticed CFM while working out at my first CrossFit box in Winston. I saw the fridge and always wondered what it was or how to order, but I never really took the time to ask questions or do any research.  Then, when I switched to the box in High Point, I saw the same refrigerator again.  To be honest, I hadn’t realized that Custom Fit Meals was a “chain.”  It caught my attention seeing it again, and our coach posted about ordering meals on the gym website every once in a while.  I remember checking out the website and thinking it looked cool, but was a little put off by the price.  Well, then I started averaging out how much money I was spending on groceries per week to cook paleo meals for one… EXPENSIVE, that’s how much.  Plus, I love cooking, but I was getting a little tired of eating the same two meals the entire week.  I decide to give CFM another look.  Before ordering, I asked my coach what he thought of the meals.  Did they taste good?  When are they delivered?  How big are the portions?  Is it worth it?  (I ask a lot questions, about everything) After finding out everything that I needed to know I made the decision to try it out.

The Pros:

• A different, delicious, home-cooked meal every day!  HOORAY!
• Super convenient (I don’t spend any time prepping, which is great for the weekends when I travel)
• I can pick up the meals Monday morning when I work out at 6:30
• I order the large portion meals.  5 for $50 and then I split each meal in half, thus maximizing my meals so that I have 10 instead of 5.

The Cons (these aren’t very legit cons):

• I’m not preparing my own paleo recipes, which is only a con because I really enjoy cooking
• I don’t know what anything is going to taste like before I try it.  This is difficult for someone like me because  I don’t take a lot of risks and I’m infamous for being an extremely picky eater–I just started eating green beans and sweet potatoes within the past 4 years. I was missing out!

I have really been impressed with Custom Fit Meals since trying them in the beginning of March.  I’ve ordered every week except for two weeks.  Once because I had a lot of left over food that I needed to use, and the second time because almost every menu item had “fennel seeds” in the recipes.  Kayla hates fennel seeds. They’re weird and taste like licorice…gross.

I’ve had three weeks worth of meals so far, and out of all of those, there was only 1 meal that I just didn’t like- it was a banana breakfast loaf thing. The description made it sound like it was going to be AWESOME, and I was so excited to try it because I have a weird obsession with bananas, but it just didn’t do it for me.

They deliver to a lot of CrossFit boxes up and down the east coast.  If your box does CFM and you’ve been thinking about trying them, I would highly recommend that you do so.  And if your box doesn’t have CFM, talk to your box owner to see if they can start!

You know what else can be custom?

REEBOK CROSSFIT NANOS!!!! I love my nanos.  I just have the regular black/pink ones, but they are SO comfortable, and so perfect for CrossFit WODs.  They aren’t my favorite when we run during WODs, but that’s okay.

So, last Saturday night, Jacob fell asleep on the sofa, and I was bored.  What does a CrossFit blogger do when she’s bored?  She designs custom work out shoes on the Reebok website, obviously.  Want to see some of my creations?

‘Merica Nanos

Do Work Nanos

Go Hard Nanos

Girly Nanos

Pretty sweet right?  If I get a new pair, I’ll probably go with the ‘Merica ones.  They’re my favorite.

Alright! It’s almost time for New Girl to come on at 9:00!  Hope everyone is having a super fantastic week, and that your weather has been as nice as mine here in NC!!!

What Is CrossFit?

Today was a spectacular day!!! Well, it really wasn’t.  I ended up staying late at work by almost two hours- yuck.  It was especially sad because the weather is B-E-A-UTIFUL today!  78 degrees outside! Can’t beat that!  Anyways, I was feeling pretty defeated until I walked in the door and saw a package addressed to me… And inside that package was the PaleOMG cookbook!!!  HOORAY! I pre-ordered it months ago, and to be honest I had sort of forgot about it, but that made it all the more exciting because I was totally surprised that it had arrived!  I even screamed to my roommate, “TODAY IS NOW GOOD AGAIN!”  I immediately sat down at the kitchen table (it felt like the right place to read a cook book, duh) and read all the intro pages and then drooled over all of her fabulous recipes.  Juli really is a culinary genius.  I don’t know how she does it, and I’m totally jealous of how super cool she is, but that cook book is LEGIT.  If you have not checked out her blog yet, then I don’t know what you’ve been doing on the Internet, but be sure to check it out immediately: PaleOMG!

Now that I’m done girl-crushing on JB. Onto what I really meant to post about today…

WHAT IS CROSSFIT?

Good question right?  Last Sunday during our family Easter lunch, my teenage cousin–who is very smart, beautiful, and talented runner– looked at me with the most curious of faces and said, “So, what is CrossFit?”

What is CrossFit?  To be honest, I was a little befuddled.  This was my chance!  I literally dream about people coming up to me and asking me about CrossFit, and here I was with my own cousin asking me to describe CrossFit and I was lost for words.  I didn’t want to mess up my chance to make an impression on her, to get her thinking, “Hey, that sounds pretty cool, maybe I should try CrossFit…”

What ended up happening?  I described CrossFit very literally.  I think may exact words went something like this:

“Well, it’s referred to as the Sport of Fitness.  The work outs combine weightlifting techniques, with a lot of high intensity interval training….”

And then I went on to spout out a list of different “typical” CrossFit exercise movements and example WODs, etc.  She seemed to take my answer for what it was worth, a literal explanation, and went back to what she was doing.  Fair enough.  My answer wasn’t exactly mind boggling or life altering in any way.  BUT… it did get me thinking.  What will I do if someone ever asks me this question again?  How do I put into words a description of CrossFit that accurately depicts what CrossFit is while also conveying my love and enthusiasm for the sport but also trying to NOT sound like a crazy person?  I know it shouldn’t be this hard, but I’ve been pondering this question for over a week…

Now… two other events have happened in the past week, that I think will also contribute to my answer…

First:  A person at work found out that I do CrossFit, and he looked right at me and said things like:  CrossFit is terrible, no one should do CrossFit, it’s garbage, kipping isn’t good for you, they don’t teach form in CrossFit gyms, etc. etc. on and on.

I thought I was going to explode. I’m pretty sure there was smoke coming out of my ears.  Of course I argued right back with this person, disproving all of his reasons for being opposed to CrossFit.  But afterwards, it literally look me about 10 minutes to calm down from the whole ordeal.  I felt as if this guy had insulted a family member or something, pretty dramatic, I know, but really, I was offended.  And, believe me, I understand that CrossFit is NOT for everyone, for whatever reason.  But for this dude to blatantly attack CrossFit right in front of me, I was not happy.  I’m also super sensitive, so that could have played a role too.

Second: Jacob and I went to a wedding on Saturday. I knew it was going to be hard to do, but I told myself I would try my best to not talk to people about CrossFit the entire time. I said, “Only if someone brings it up first, can you talk about CrossFit or nutrition or fitness of any kind…”  Well it worked pretty well, but I feel like the people who did bring it up, instantly regretted it because then I just kept talking.  That’s one thing about me:  I get very excited about almost everything, and it’s hard to contain that.  Anyways, I don’t think I annoyed the crap out of anyone, which is good, but I do think I need to coach myself into being about to converse with people normally about my two favorite topics, without overwhelming anyone.

So, these three experiences combined, definitely have me thinking about the initial question:  What is CrossFit?

What’s the best way to answer this question?  Do I take a technical approach?  Do I go balls to the wall and just start rambling? Do I develop some sort of “elevator speech” that I can use to be informative but not overwhelming?  Am I reading into this wayyyyy too much. Yes, definitely yes. But, that’s okay.  I want to be prepared the next time someone asks me about CrossFit.  I want to be able to describe this incredibly awesome sport in a way that makes other people feel inspired.  After listening to me talk about CrossFit I want people who have never even thought about trying CrossFit to be curious, to want to look for a box and try it out for themselves.

My answer:  go to girlmeetswod.com, it explains everything you need to know.

JUST KIDDING!  Although one day it would be pretty sweet to be able to do that.  Now is not that time though.

My real answer:  CrossFit has completely changed the definition of fitness. They’ve torn down all of the walls, shattered the traditional approach and created something amazing.  CrossFit will challenge you physically and mentally in ways that you never imagined.  You will find that you constantly compete against yourself during the work outs–pushing yourself to the next level, smashing PR’s, and feeling like a boss while doing so.  By combining weight training with high-intensity interval work outs, CrossFit will leave even the toughest athlete wondering what the heck happened during that WOD.  But, at the same time, CrossFit can be catered to any caliber athlete.  That’s the beauty of CrossFit, athletes from any background can be successful CrossFitters, as long as they work hard.  And the best part about CrossFit?  The community.  There are CrossFitters everywhere, and they are the most hard-working, encouraging, motivating people that you’ll ever meet.

Also, I found this gem on the CrossFit HQ site.  Obviously, a pretty legit explanation of CrossFit also:  What Is CrossFit?

What do you say when someone asks you about CrossFit?  Do you have a hard time not talking about CrossFit all of the time? Or is it just me?

CrossFit Media Outlets

How far has my CrossFit obsession creeped into every aspect of my life? I think it’s safe to say that is has literally taken over at this point. When I’m not doing CrossFit, I’m thinking about, reading about, or learning about CrossFit and Paleo. I want to highlight a few really great examples of two media sources that I recently discovered.

WOD Talk Magazine

photo credit: wodtalk.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our friend, Andrew, passed off two of his old issues of WOD Talk to Jacob on Friday. Then what happened? Well I immediately intercepted them on Saturday morning and would not let those magazines out of my site. Jacob consented to let me take them home with me since I was so attached. I literally read the first one cover to cover throughout the day on Saturday (on the way to CrossFit, in the CrossFit parking lot, outside in the nice weather, sitting on the sofa after CrossFit, you get the picture…) Jacob is so good, he realizes my obsessions and usually helps feed them. I just couldn’t help it though. The articles were so good and so informative. They had articles about mobility, about other athletes, and my favorite- stories about affiliates and how they started their boxes! Love those stories! Oh and they have lots of great ads for companies that I’ve never even heard of, thus providing new ways for me to spend my money on CrossFit related things.

Barbell Shrugged Podcasts

photo credit: thechrismooreblog.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These dudes are hilarious. The End. Oh and they talk about CrossFit and nutrition every week! Oh, and they interview super sweet athletes like Rich Froning, Jr. What more could a girl ask for in a podcast?

I don’t know what possessed me to do so, but during work yesterday morning when I was trying to decide on a pandora station I kept thinking, “Gosh I wish there was a way for me to feed my fitness and/or nutrition obsession while I’m working…” Low and behold I decided to see if there were any awesome podcasts out there that I could listen to during the day. I freaking struck gold with this one, you guys. It is so good, I even continued listening to it while I went for a 3 mile run this afternoon. I’ve never listened to people talking while running, only music, or nothing. I swear I felt like my run took no time at all. I was so interested in the podcast the entire time. If you have the opportunity to listen to something during the day you should definitely take these podcast episodes for a spin. You will not regret it!

Have you guys found any other ways in which to feed your CrossFit obsessions? Other blogs/websites? YouTube Videos? What have you found?

thirteen point four

Howdy Folks! I hope everyone had a pleasant Monday. I started off my Monday with a morning work out of:

5×5 Front Squats (heavy as possible) I started out at 65# and worked up to 105# by the last set

WOD:

12 minute AMRAP

• 10 thrusters 115/85#
• 15 Hand Release Push Ups

I used 65# for the thrusters. HEAVY. The last time I did Fran I only did 45# so 65# was a nice step up, but I’ve decided if I want to get stronger, I’m going to have to step outside my comfort zone and add weight even if it’s “heavy.” CrossFit isn’t ever going to get “easier” I’m just going to get stronger which needs to START.RIGHT. NOW!

Let’s rewind to last week/weekend.

THIRTEEN POINT FOUR

The WOD:

AMRAP in 7 minutes

5 pound Clean and jerk, 3 reps
3 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 6 reps
6 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 9 reps
9 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 12 reps
12 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 15 reps
15 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 18 reps

Per usual, I did 13.4 Thursday morning. I knew 95# was going to be tough because my heaviest logged clean and heaviest logged jerk were both 75# so adding 20# was going to be interesting. I knew I would have to get my toes to bar one at a time, but I was up for the challenge. 7 minutes isn’t so bad.

I ended up doing split jerks with the weight. I felt pretty good about them, it was definitely heavy, but the split helped me get it over head better than a regular jerk. I no rep’d the crap out of the T2B. If the exercise was called “toes to 6 inches away from the bar” I would have been golden. I just need to practice. I do really well with a big kip, but I can’t string them together yet. All in due time. CrossFit wouldn’t be as fun if I was super sweet at everything. #duh Anyways, I ended up with 22 reps in 7 minutes.

Saturday morning I did 13.4 again at Brickhouse CrossFit with Jacob and Andrew. Same story as Monday except I moved through my weight a littler faster. Toes to bar were still really rough, but I’ll get them. I closed out my 7 minutes with 31 total reps. 8 more than the first time, I’ll take it.

I’m a little sad that this week is the last week of the CrossFit Open. I guess it will be back to regular work outs after next week. I make it sound like that’s a bad thing, but really isn’t. The Open is just really, really fun and it has shown me how vast, diverse, exciting, and AWESOME the CrossFit Community really is. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for the Games though. It’s too bad North Carolina isn’t closer to California! I am debating making the trip up to DC for the Mid-Atlantic Regionals weekend-June 7-9th. I saw a link on the games website about signing up to be a volunteer during Regionals. Has anyone ever done that before or would I have more fun just going up there and watching? Decisions…decisions…

My bloggity-blog game plan: I noticed that I typically pack in a lot of info and topics within each post that I publish. That’s lame. Whenever I go to the blogs that I love and see a lonngggg post, sometimes I just skim through and hit the highlights. I’m going to try to write smaller chunks and just post more frequently. That way I can touch on multiple topics without jumping all over the place and losing people’s interest. Sound good?

Alright friends, I’ll catch ya later!!