Retro Post: Never Stop Trying

I originally wrote this post on August 2, 2011 but I never finished editing it. (See? I told you I had some unfinished business.)

Never stop trying. That’s a phrase you will often hear within the CrossFit community. And, honestly, it’s a great rule to live by…most of the time.

For instance, I watched one of the trial videos for the CrossFit games. The workout was:

AMRAP 5 Minutes:
Squat Clean and Jerk (Men- 165#, Women- 110#)

I watched a video of the girl who was in very last place (wish I could find the video but they’ve either taken them down or I just can’t find it anymore). I watched her try, unsuccessfully, to get a clean & jerk at 110# for over 4 minutes. Finally, with less than 1 minute to go, she got one! She finally got ONE! Success!! I mean, yes, it was only one and it probably wasn’t going to qualify her for the games, but the point is, she never stopped trying. She kept going and posted her results for the world to see anyway. Good for her!

However, there are times when you really need to stop trying. I came across this video on the CrossFit website (I used to have it linked but they’ve since taken it down). It’s basically about a girl who separated her right shoulder doing muscle ups in an earlier workout. She continued the next workout (the same day) which involved dumbbell thrusters and toes to bar which are movements that rely heavily (in my opinion…I’m really no expert) on the shoulders. If you watch her in the video, she had to physically pick up her right arm with her left arm to get it up to the bar.

This is just something I cannot understand. It may say something about my level of dedication or my willingness to fight through the pain but continue to work out after such a serious injury is just not my idea of smart. A headache, mild stomach ache, soreness or certain pain due to inactivity (i.e. stiff joints, sciatic pain, certain elbow pain) I believe should be worked through. And in most of these cases, you’ll feel loads better after the workout than if you hadn’t done it.

So…got me thinking. What are my limits? What am I willing and not willing to do? Not that it really matters, but, after much thought, here are what I’ve decided are my limits.

Injuries worth stopping a workout for:

• severe dizziness and/or spotty vision (it’s only happened to me once…and it was not fun)
• back injury of any sort (mainly because my back is so prone to going out…I’d like to not push it…)
• serious bodily injury such as a sprain, broken bone or dislocation. However, this is not to say that if I have a broken finger and the workout is primarily running that I won’t go out and do the running…But I certainly won’t be doing any lifting!
• illness

Injuries NOT worth stopping a workout for:

• soreness
• mild dizziness
• minor bodily injury (pulled muscle)
• headache
• mild illness
• sleepy (unless it were severe sleep deprivation…ha!)

What are your limits?

Old Years 2011

Well, it’s not new years…so…it’s old years!  It’s time for the wrap up of 2011 New Years resolutions.  I was determined to keep myself accountable this year and I did!!  I did post a mid-year update in May to give you and myself a little progress report.  For the most part I was doing pretty well.  I actually finished out the year mostly meeting my goals. In case you forgot, here’s a recap of my goals.

1. Complete the Whole30 challenge twice.  (getting a head start.  starting my second (ever) and first (of the new year) whole30 on tuesday.  yes…i’ve given in to peer pressure.)

2. Read one book a month. (this will be tough. however, i got my swanky ipad for my birthday so i gotta make good use of it! i’m off to a good start…i’m halfway through two books already)

3. Post more recipes and my experiences with them. (not specific enough? dang.) Post at least one new recipe a week.

4. In that case, that means I must TRY one new recipe a week. (i can handle that.)

5. Participate in one CrossFit competition. (not because i think i will win or because i think i will be good at it…but because they will give me something to strive for athletically)

6. Pursue my career goal.via New Years 2011 « Adventures in Jennileeland.

1. Did it. Although they were not fun and I was not prepared for either well enough to get the results I wanted but…I still did them. That’s all that matters.
2. I actually did this!! I’ve read 18 books so far and I think I’ll finish another 1 or 2 before Friday! This will make 19 or 20! wahoo!! I haven’t read this much in YEARS and it feels great!! I read the first 4 Harry Potter books, the first two Hunger Games books, three cookbooks (Paleo Comfort Foods, Everyday Paleo, Skinny Italian) and almost a third (Well-Fed), two books on tape (Little Women and Time Travelers Wife), all three The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books, Water for Elephants, a book about sewing and Intimate Issues. I’m currently nearly done with Waiter Rant and Well-Fed. If you want to follow my books I’m reading, or track your own, check out Goodreads!! (www.goodreads.com)
3. Well, I didn’t get one new one a week BUT I did try a lot of new recipes and I did actually post a lot of them.
4. Well, I didn’t necessarily try one new one a week but there were weeks I tried several so I’d safely say I’ve gotten well over 52 in for the year.
5. Did it.  Cupid’s Challenge.  Read about it here. I also participated in the CrossFit Lewisville’s Turkey Burpee which isn’t so much a competition as just a super intense workout. But, aside from the competitions, I started doing something I never would. I started doing Mud Runs!  This year I participated in three and loved them all. Next year my options will still be limited because of our tight budget but I will still work at least two in! (Beachpalooza and the Chupacabra!)
6. Still in progress… (This stuff takes time!!! 🙂 )

Well, I know you’re super excited to have me back to blogging again so I hope most of you stuck around during my hiatus and join me for a great 2012!  I’ll be posting New Years 2012 goals soon, plus some updates on what’s been going on!

JL

Los Chupacabras de la Noche Plus…ROAD TRIP!

This past weekend two lovely ladies and I trekked down to San Antonio for the 4th (?) annual Chupacabra 5k/10k run.  The course is as such…

The course runs through heavily wooded dirt trails in the pitch dark. A flashlight or headlamp is required and extremely necessary. The trails can be very rocky with tree roots in places, as well as low branches so paying attention is critical. There are many opportunities to fall and get injured. This is not a trail run for beginners. It is up to you to provide your own lighting so you do not take a spill or run into a branch.

via San Antonio Chupacabra 5K/10K | Run In Texas.

We headed down to San Antonio on Friday to catch the start of the race at 9 p.m.  Now, mind you, none of us are runners.  Nor do we enjoy running.  However, these kinds of runs are fun!  Give me something fun on the course and I’m in!!  So, as the description states, this was a run that took place in pitch black dark through a trail in the woods.  We didn’t do much stopping on the way to SA.  We really just needed to get there in time for the race.

Well, we decked ourselves out in no less than 50 (but probably more) glow sticks, adorned our brightly colored clothes and hit the trail around 9:15.  The first half of the run was great.  I really felt the CrossFit kicking in.  We were passing people one after another, after another.  It felt pretty good to be able to actually pass someone while running!  In the dark…on a heavily wooded trail too!  Mad props to Cari who kept the pace for us.  After a while, we caught up to the people who kept more of the pace we were keeping and we stayed in line with them for most of the second half of the race.  We did end up walking once (maybe twice?) for a little bit but we mostly ran.  I’m really, really proud of myself.  Anyway, final time was around 41 minutes.  I consider that pretty good for running in the dark through a rocky trail!  I don’t have my exact time because the website has my chip time and gun time as the same time…which it wasn’t at all.

So that night we check into our hotel and crashed. (but not after the manager told us that he gave away our room so all three of us would have to share one bed. long story short, we won the argument and he miraculously came up with a room with 2 beds.  a miracle, I tell ya.)

Saturday we decided to float the Comal River.  Thanks to a very helpful local at the race, we got to the river early before it got crowded.  Had a great, relaxing time on the river.  Much needed R&R!!  We did have a little mishap with one of our cameras trying to make a break for the bottom of the river.  But, 30 minutes and one really helpful gentleman later, we had the camera back!  We owe that dude a beer & a shot! whoever he is….

After the river we headed north to Austin, ate at Chuys (mmm margaritas!) and also stopped at Be My Cupcake in Round Rock.

The most memorable part of Austin was most definitely The Savory Spice Shop.  Melissa Joulwan featured this amazing shop on her blog back in March and Cari and I have been no less than obsessed with taking a trip there since then!  Well, Karen (the owner), was delighted to see us and to show us every exotic, tasty, amazing spice in her shop!  She gave me lots of ideas for recipes and uses of each of the spices I bought (plus some I already owned…and had no idea what to use them for! herbs de Provence, anyone?)

The things that attracted me to this shop from Melissa’s blog are what I ended up loving the most about it.  Please read her entire list here at her blog, The Clothes Make the Girl.

Spices I got from this amazing place are:

Ornate Onion Salt – Melissa Joulwan gave a great suggestion for this one.  Mix it with her homemade mayo and voila!  Paleo french onion dip!  Cannot wait to try this!

Tarragon Shallot Citrus Seasoning – for some baked chicken

Mexican Mole – to add to Sarah Fragoso’s already amazing mole recipe!  I also took the recipe card for their Mexican Mole but it calls for significantly more spice than I bought so I thought I would give it a try in my recipe first, then give theirs a go if I like it!

Black Truffle Italian Salt – uh, where has this been all my life?? Just wondering…because this is quite possibly the most amazing spice I have ever tasted.  Three granules (literally!) are more than enough flavor for a taste!  I’m trying this with eggs!

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt – very similar to regular sea salt but a little bit saltier so the lovely shop owner told me I wouldn’t have to use as much!  Also, because it hasn’t been processed and bleached, its got much more of the good nutrients and minerals that are part of natural sea salt.

Murray River Sea Salt – this salt resembles peach colored snow flakes and has an extremely light salt taste. She told me to only use this as a finishing salt as it does not work well for cooking.

Chimayo Chorizo Sausage Spice – to make my own chorizo!

Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry – The other lady in the shop (didn’t catch her name!) recommended this to me.  I’ve lightly dabbled in curry and I like it, but I do not like very spicy things.  She recommended this and a couple others to try that were only slightly spicy.  I chose this one because it was a little sweet and a little spicy!  Leighton likes it too!  I’ll be making htis with some mixed veggies.

Grand Garlic Salt – Well, because I use garlic salt like its going out of style and the only kinds I find in the store have a lot more crap in them besides garlic and salt.

Well, that was it! Thanks for reading… 🙂

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Updates on NYR

I decided to go back and look at my January 3rd post and reflect back upon what I had decided to do this year to make a better me. So… here’s an update!

1. Complete the Whole30 challenge twice.  (getting a head start.  starting my second (ever) and first (of the new year) whole30 on tuesday.  yes…i’ve given in to peer pressure.)
2. Read one book a month. (this will be tough. however, i got my swanky ipad for my birthday so i gotta make good use of it! i’m off to a good start…i’m halfway through two books already)
3. Pipes and my experiences with them. (not specific enough? dang.) Post at least one new recipe a week.
4. In that case, that means I must TRY one new recipe a week. (i can handle that.)
5. Participate in one CrossFit competition. (not because I think I will win or because I think I will be good at it…but because they will give me something to strive for athletically)
6. Pursue my career goal.

via New Years 2011 « Adventures in Jennileeland.

1. Done.  Sort of.  I’m not happy with them.  I want to do a couple more that I have actually planned out my meals and are better well prepared.  I know that there is no way to avoid the occasional “unpreparedness” of life but I’d still like to be a little more prepared.
2. Okay…I’ll admit.  I’m a little behind on this one.  I should be on book number five.  So far I have read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Water for Elephants and most of The Paleo Solution.  I am about 1/4 way through The Girl Who Played with Fire (Dragon Tattoo’s 2nd in the series of 3) right now.  So…I am only 1 behind if I finish The Paleo Solution.  I did decide today to go to the library and finally get a library card.  I forgot how much I love the library.  The smell…the sound…I love it!  Today I checked out the audio book of Little Women. It’s my favorite classic and I haven’t read it in years.  I got the audio so I can listen to it on the way to and from work.
3. I’ve posted 8 since the new year.  That’s about 2 per month.  I think I’m doing pretty good!  However, I’ll try to keep that up and up it to try and get in one new recipe per week.
4. For the most part, I’ve been trying at least 1 and sometimes up to 4 new recipes per week.  Yesss!
5. Done! I have already participated in the Cupid’s Challenge in February.  I’ve signed up for the May Day Challenge as well.  Which brings me to…
   If you haven’t already, or if you are interested, please sign up for the May Day Challenge atCrossFit Denton County.  It’ll be a blast!! (and scaled so that everyone can participate!)  The proceeds will benefit Champions of Hope, a mentorship program aimed at providing at-risk students in the Dallas area with caring, positive role models who will walk with them from 4th/5th grade until high school graduation. If you can’t participate, please come and show your support for me (and CFDC) at the competition!!!
   
6. In the process… 🙂

I think that overall, I’ve done pretty well.  A few more books here and a little more cooking and posting there and I’ll be right on track!

So…I’d like to tell you what I think about the books I’ve read and the ones that will be next!

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — For a while I didn’t really understand what this book was about.  People would say, “Is it good? What’s it about?” And I had a hard time answering them…I mean, it was drama.  It was suspense.  It was love.  I wasn’t really sure.  Then…BAM!  I could barely put the book down during the last half.  It turned out to be a really, really great read with a great story line that catches you by surprise at the end. It definitely got me ready to read the two sequels.
• Water for Elephants — I picked this book up in an airport bookstore on a 7 hour flight delay in Little Rock a couple weeks ago.  I finished reading this book in 2 days. Okay…technically four…but the two days in the middle I didn’t have time to read even one page so I don’t count them!  This was a great book that I could NOT put down!  It was an awesome story about a veterinarian school dropout turned traveling circus vet.  It flashes back between his older years in a nursing home and his younger years with the circus.  It is dramatic and heart wrenching at times. I’m a sucker for the animals.
• The Paleo Solution — Well, duh I love this book!  I haven’t read the last few chapters because I have been loaning it out to people before I could finish it.  It’s worth it, though, to spread the Paleo cheer! 🙂  I love everyone that’s jumping in and asking lots of questions!  I never mind answering any paleo-related question.  Hit me with them anytime!  After Melissa finishes it, I will make sure I finish the last chapters before I loan it out again.
• The Girl Who Played with Fire — This is the 2nd in the 3 book series.  This one started off a lot more exciting than the first one.  It only took about 50 pages for me to understand what this one was going to be about and for me to totally be engrossed in it.  Every chance I get I pick up my iPad and get in another few pages.  I’ll probably be finished with it by the end of this week or next.
• Little Women — What an amazing classic.  If you haven’t read it, do it.  If you have read it, read it again.  Man or woman…this book must be read by all.  Such a great story.
• Do the Work — This book is currently FREE on Amazon.com so go order it while you can!  I will start reading this after I’m finished with The Girl Who Played with Fire.  Leighton is currently reading it and he really likes it.  It is a book about how to get what you want and get where you’re going.  Want to start a business?  Or a new career?  This book will help you get off your butt and get started!  It’s sponsored by the Domino Project.  I learned about this book because I’m a Bzz Agent and I get to be a part of this campaign for an entire year.  They’ll release one new free book every month to read and try out!

So far that’s all that’s in the line as a definite…although I have a list on Amazon.com about 70 books long that I want to read.  Not to mention, probably 50 in my office of books I’ve bought but never read!

Well…that’s all for now!! Almost bedtime.

Workout: “Annie”

Well, I wrote this a long time ago but I guess I never actually published it…so…here it is! 🙂

Thursday’s workout was….

Strength
Deadlift 5×5

Met-con
“Annie”

50-40-30-20-10
Double Unders
Sit-ups

Compare to 11-16-10.

Cash-out
Max Pull-ups x3

via CrossFit Denton County.

For this workout, I scaled the DU’s to 25-20-15-10-5 and kept the sit ups as Rx’d.

This was the first workout that I could not finish.  And did not finish….until the next day.  Thursday I had eaten virtually nothing except for coffee and a soda (which I never drink) for breakfast.  Lunch was a cheesy chicken panini and a caesar salad from Corner Bakery and dinner was nothing (before my workout anyway).  When I started to do the workout, I felt fine but halfway through the 40 sit ups, I started to feel sick to my stomach.  Then, during the 15 DU’s, I started to get tunnel vision and get really dizzy.  I sat down and could not get back up.  I was so sick and so lightheaded I thought I was going to throw up, pass out, or both.  I could barely even talk.  Casey & Scott came to check on me and saw that I as not sweating at all.  It was nearly 90 degrees in the middle of a pretty intense 11 minute workout…this is not good.  Anyway, I got some water in me and a cold, frozen meat of some sort put on my neck to cool me down.  It took me around 20 minutes to recover enough to sit up and another 10 to be able to stand up and walk around.  When I got home, Leighton cooked me a wonderful, filling, nutritious, delicious paleo dinner and slowly, but surely I felt complete recovery by the time I went to bed.

Friday, I went in and re-tried “Annie” again in the 5 a.m. class.  Wow.  What a difference good nutrition makes!  I blasted through the workout and did all the situps virtually unbroken.  I also did pretty well on my DU’s and only broke them up because I missed my jumps.  The last 3 sets of DU’s were unbroken.  My time ended at 10:43 and I’m pretty happy with that.  Especially since back in November my time was around 10:30 and I had to do 2x the singles (so 100-80-60-40-20 singles instead of the DU’s).  So glad I’m finally getting the hang of DU’s.  Can’t wait until I can do 20 or more unbroken!

And…with all that excitement, I cannot remember what I did on my deadlifts…

Anyway…there’s your fitness update for  now (even though I wrote most of it back in April…LOL)

Sorry I haven’t written much lately…honestly…nothing interesting happening lately!  Maybe I’ll just start posting more about my workouts. 🙂 🙂

P.S.  If you haven’t already, or if you are interested, please sign up for the May Day Challenge at CrossFit Denton County.  It’ll be a blast!! (and scaled so that everyone can participate!)  The proceeds will benefit Champions of Hope, a mentorship program aimed at providing at-risk students in the Dallas area with caring, positive role models who will walk with them from 4th/5th grade until high school graduation. 

If you can’t participate, please come and show your support for me (and CFDC) at the competition!!!

Cupid’s Challenge

This past Saturday I competed in the Cupid’s Challenge in Allen, TX hosted by CrossFit FX TX and West Plano CrossFit. What an awesome experience! I had a great time and I learned a lot about what I can actually do.

I had never been to a CrossFit competition so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was pretty much expecting to do one really intense workout.

…..boy was I wrong……

More like THREE really intense, crazy workouts. At the beginning of the day I thought I’d be able to finish all of them. I knew they would be hard…but I had a lot of confidence in myself and my ability to push through. Well…here’s the synopsis of my workouts and how I felt about them…enjoy.

(I’ve posted a key at the end of the blog for terms you may not be familiar with. Also, some have a link to a video or picture of the movement)

WOD* #1
AMRAP* 17 minutes
9 overhead lunges @55#
9 alternated grip dead lifts* @115#
9 2fer wall balls @ 10#

About 10 seconds into this WOD I was almost in tears. Almost in tears because it was the first time that I really, actually thought I could not physically finish a workout.  I really thought the weight was too much and I would just not be able to lift it no matter how hard I tried. My overhead squat (OHS) max is 80# and the most I’ve ever used in a workout is 35# so overhead lunges (OHL) at 55# were really rough. Not to mention I’ve never really done an “overhead lunge” like these so I was not familiar with the movement, especially at this weight. I’ve done OHS and I’ve done lunges…but never a combination of the two. So…the first attempted OHL I fell flat on my backside because once I was down in the lunge, I couldn’t get back out of it.

Um…that was embarrassing…

I started to tear up right then and there. I don’t typically cry. Like…almost never. And this stupid WOD was going to make me cry?!?   No! I was not going to let it get the best of me.   So I got up, walked back over to the bar (not without a little encouragement from Kelly K and Casey on the sidelines) and picked the bar up and tried again. The second attempt went much better…I found a way to push myself up out of the lunge that enabled me to lift the heavier weight.

Okay…finished my 9 OHL so on to deadlifts. These were HARD…don’t get me wrong. However, they were easier than I had pegged them to be in my brain except they were really tough on my lower back. My one rep max on deadlifts is 135# so I was a little bit worried about doing an entire workout with only 20# less than my max.  I had decided in the beginning that if my form started to fail because of the awkward way we had to grip and lift the bar, I was going to stop. No back injury is worth a competition (oh, and my chiropractor might just kill me). Well, even though they were tough … and awkward … and hard … I don’t think my form suffered.  Go me!

2fers were a joke. An absolute joke. I couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm and I certainly couldn’t do a 2fer as Rx’d*. I instead did a wall ball, let the ball drop, and did a squat then picked the ball up and repeated. This slowed me down tremendously but I trudged through it anyway.

The rest of the rounds went about the same as the first one. On every.single.round I fell on the 5th rep of the OHL. The deadlifts went 1 or 2 at a time each round and 2fers were as unbroken as I could make them considering how I had to do them.

In the end, I finished with 4 rounds plus 14 reps (9 OHL and 5 deadlifts).  Got 9th place out of 9, lol.

WOD #2
4 rounds
40m gallops (basically moving half-burpees)
10 K2E (I did knees to chest)
10 push ups
10 GHD situps
….Then a 1k row after the 4 rounds

I was worried about this workout because, again, my lower back. I wasn’t sure I would be able to do 40 GHD sit-ups. I tested them out first and got some tips from David about how to lessen the pressure on my lower back. This was the part going in that I thought would be the worst.

Wrong.

Gallops…1/2 burpees…leap frogs…whatever you want to call them, they were horrendous! 40 meters never looked so long. They were awful! And my hamstrings were killing me the whole time! Really didn’t think I’d be able to finish those. The knees-to-chest and push ups weren’t so bad but the GHD sit-ups were pretty awful. I was doing them too slow, which was really irritating my back…but I trudged through each round and did them all.

Had it not been for Mike, I’m not sure I would have finished the last two rounds. He walked along side me on the sidelines and kept yelling at me to keep going. Turns out, it was encouragement that I seriously needed.

The 1K row was probably the easiest part for me.  I’m sure I looked miserable doing it…but I never mind rowing.  Never.  at least not yet… The row took me a while…and I wanted to stop to rest a couple of times but Kelly and the rest of the CFDC’rs were cheering me on and Kelly was NOT gonna let me stop on that row.

Made it through that one in 21:58.  Once again, got 9th place out of 9. haha! 🙂

WOD #3

Upside down disoriented Fran
9-15-21 reps
Dumbbell thrusters with one 10# and one 20# db
Spin 5 times
Over/under pull ups (one hand gripping over the bar, one hand gripping under the bar)
Spin 5 times

Thrusters were the hardest part…pull ups were relatively easy…not much to say on this one.

Finished in 6:05.  4th out of 9.

Overall finished 8th out of 9.  Better than 9th out of 9!! hehe

All in all, I was NOT a happy camper during the workouts.  However, it was one of the most fun experiences.  I enjoyed getting to see other CF competitors and also getting to cheer David, Rocky and our CFDC Team, Willie, Jake, Mike and Niki on during their heats.  What a fun day!  And I learned SO much.  SO, so much.  I’ll definitely do it again…MAYBE not that gym’s competition…but I’ll definitely be participating in other competitions.  I’m looking forward to the next one…whenever that will be!

Sorry for the long absence!  I’ve been so busy this month but I’m forcing myself to slow down and weed out things that aren’t important! (like fb games…hehe 🙂 )

—–JL—–

 

• WOD – Workout of the day
• AMRAP – As many rounds as possible in XX minutes
• Alternated Grip Deadlifts – These take some explanation because I wasn’t able to find any examples online.  You grip the bar in a normal dead lift stance.  They tape where your hands go.  For these deadlifts, you had to grip the bar on one side of the tape or the other….alternating each side for each round.
• Rx’d – as prescribed or performing the workout as written without modification