silverbirch, Rx just means 'as prescribed' which means no modifications. We'll usually just say "R-x" or "as prescribed"

I did Murph today which definitely wasn't Rx

1 mile run
100 pullups (I did jumping pullups)
200 pushups (pushups on an incline)
300 squats
1 mile run (this was more of a lumber than a run)

My time was just over 71 minutes. I wasn't the slowest time of the day and it turns out someone was slower than me yesterday. Not that I'm competitive or anything...

Just as I was leaving, a girl finished Murph Rx at 36 minutes. She is insane

Thanks, Nelie. I am so impressed with how you're getting on at CF. Insane, eh?

Nelie, great job!

Birch, Sorry, sometimes we forget that not everybody understands the CF-speak.

Yesterday, I did get the painting job done..woot! There were a few sprinkles toward the end, but not enough rain to ruin the paint job. Hit the gym last night, then managed to drag myself to the grocery store on the way home. I've been without groceries for me for a few days, so it will be good to get back to my normal food. Except for the part where I have to cook turkey this morning if I want to take some for lunch...gym cleaning day today, plus a few gym projects with the boss lady, so I'll be living out of the lunch cooler.

Last night's workout was a good one:
10 Thrusters (barbell front squat immediately into push press) @ 135m/95women
50 Double-Unders (jumprope, rope passes 2x under for each jump, or 5x singles)
3 rounds for time

I was thinking maybe 65 or 75# for the thrusters, but then saw that my friend Lisa did it rx'd. When I saw that, well, of course I had to try for the rx'd thrusters, too, since she and I are usually about the same for capacity and time. It was heavy, oh so heavy, but I did it! 19:26 Rx! Lisa beat me by 19 seconds. I'm guessing she had as much luck with double-unders as I was having: 1, trip, 1, trip...

Well, better get some food cooked, and also think I need to rotate laundry so I have some dry gym clothes to wear today.

Awesome Cheryl!

At some level, I'm glad that I'm on quasi equal standing with some of the women at my gym. I can't do pullups with a band yet but I've been warned that my jumping pullups are going to be short lived. I'm scared to death of the band and well the bar and band combined. Our gym is upgrading though and will be buying a 24 foot pullup bar contraption which says it lowers down to 7 feet. Maybe that'll help eleviate my fears a little with a lower bar, IF the trainer lets me lower it.

Anyway, I like looking at the board and seeing other girls with similar times as mine, whether I am faster or they are faster, doesn't matter too much.

Oh my god Jamsk8er! You've just reminded me I put clothes in almost a week ago and haven't even put them in the dryer yet! Eek. I was wondering where some of my stuff was >.<

Shannon, I work in customer relations for a telecommunications company. It's not an easy job with the way it's built up in Canada. It's common knowledge here that if you call in to your provider and threaten to cancel it's our job to stop you. I've actually had people say to me "If I scream at you, will you give this to me for free?" Some are legitimately angry, some fake being angry to fish for discounts and people post their bills online to show what we've given them so people call in and pretend like we offered them the same. They also post our unlisted direct number online. It's easy to tell which ones are lying, so I only do things for the people that are honest with me, and if they are nice about it I'll do more. When I say be nice about it, I mean not attacking my intelligence or being derogatory towards me in the hopes that this will make us best friends and I'll do whatever you want.

So after so long, there's only so much you can take.

I used to work for Starbucks, I hated coming home and smelling like coffee was brewing when I took a shower. I hated having food all over me, and not being able to wear what colour socks I wanted (even though no one sees them, they gotta be black). But I was a supervisor there and it was so much less stressful then this.

Okay, that was a long post. *phew* I guess I needed to rant a bit, haha.

Stephanie: Your post about your job brought back memories for me too. I had a similar position after college working for a rather large online company when the idea of forums were brand new and blogging was never heard of. While the technology is so much more improved it sounds like the games are still the same. I found my way out by taking all of the knowledge I had about the job and documenting it for the rest of the department. It was a huge department...think like over 200...not including international offices. I became the documentation specialist and then evolved into technical writing. Hang in there, think about what you would like to do once you relocate and shape your life around that. It really is that important.

Cheryl: Great job with the thrusters. Sounds like it was a crazy busy day.

Yesterday I tested out the trails for a run. Little more challenging here because of the hills and the occasional box turtle I had to detour around. Seriously, what's the deal with all of these crazy little turtles around here. At least all I've seen were the turtles, if they were snakes I'd freak and never run anywhere but on a treadmill again. Little sore in places that usually don't feel anything. Must be the sprints up the hills and having to run down the hills with the "brakes on." Great fun, but I'm thinking maybe something I do once a week at the most.

Mel: Hope you're having a great time!

Aww Shannon, you look so gorgeous

I haven't worked out in 2 weeks. I am back to my goal weight though Yay. I'm too tired to exercise, lol.

Cheryl, wow!

I wanted to say about reunions: I too felt that I just had to leave my small hometown, and don't have any regrets that I did. I'm on FB with a lot of former high school friends, and we couldn't be more different in ways that matter to me. On the other hand, I enjoy seeing them again, and I simply avoid certain topics.

At this reunion I simply plan to flex all of my new muscles

Here! Here!

...and flex you shall...

Have a GREAT TIME TONIGHT SHANNON! We'll be thinking of you.

Lydia, I'm glad to know someone knows how I feel! God, when I hear people sometimes I think 'who are these people?!' I don't know anyone in real life who acts like this or is that cheap or petty. Some guy told me that if I was smart enough to give him a 200 dollar credit maybe I'd get a promotion, make more money, get a better education and get a real job. Thankfully my job allows me the dignity to hang up on people that are personally attacking me.

There's over 600 of us in our centre alone, what I'd like to take from this is the skills I've learned in dealing with people. I would like to go into HR one day when I have the time and money to go back to school.

I haven't been lifting as much lately, I have been watching my food but I'm back to snacking on things at night. At least yesterday I snacked on crab and cucumber which isn't as bad.

I need to find a way to get my 'ooomph' back so I can push myself to start lifting more. I'm thinking of taking a break from NRoL4W and creating my own program based on what I've learnt from it and this other weight lifting book I have. I'm thinking switching it up and keeping it fresh will help.

Stephanie: Switching this up is the key in keeping your head in the game here. The idea of going in and lifting the same time of program day in day out year after year is a maddening thought. What I have learned is that each year I have to experience/explore something new. This does a couple of things, one it stimulates me mentally because I LOVE to learn/research and secondly it fulfills the "keep changing it up every four to six weeks" rule.

Sometimes these quests take me way outside my comfort zone. But one of the other things I'm learning is that my confidence increases after I accomplish that new skill or have that experience. The first time I did this was about a year after I began lifting. I was becoming so burned out that I was feeling simmering anger even as I approached the bench. Just plain beat up. I needed something challenging that used this new body I had but yet wasn't going to beat it ups with the pressure of weights on my joints. Through physical therapy I was introduced into a couple of yoga poses and began to find release in that. For my birthday I enrolled in a eight week Ashtanga series in a wonderful yoga studio. Yep, outside of my comfort zone. I was still all about weights and fat burning intervals but beneath that, I knew I needed something else too. First week left me a bit uninspired. It was mostly talking and a lot of bare feet. (hate bare feet and so does my son by the way so it's genetic ) Second week, and it's Ashtanga mind you, we got to business. Damn, I could do this. The instructor was having me do things that I had no idea my body was capable of doing. (it was all the strength training I had done being used in a new way) I was totally hooked.

The following year I decided to pursue my certifications in personal training. Consecutively I then left the gym I loved to learn another form of fitness in Functional Training. This past year has been all about THE MOVE. ick. I'm scrambling to get things together over here so I can move beyond just working out to actually TRAINING myself again. It is a continuum and you are correct that you have to keep reaching and exploring to maintain your enthusiasm for the effort this takes.

Long story short, not a bad idea to put together your own programming for a while. I believe that when we invest more into researching our workouts we get a lot more out of them. And, WE OWN IT.

Here I go off on another tangent...

I was watching some group training taking place at my gym this winter. It was new and really catching on with the female members. Three days a week they would congregate and meet with a staff member who put them through the paces. She did a fine job. Looked a lot like my own workouts. The members were so happy, it was a kick to watch them. I remember thinking I wished they were doing this when I first began lifting and exploring functional training. Then it hit me. I'm at a point where I really don't need to do group training, at least not for the same reasons these women do. I know what to do, how to do it etc. I really own the knowledge here. These women are relying upon someone else to teach them what the instructor may think is important or what she might feel like doing on that day....So, even though I had to invest more to do what I do, at the end of the day, I own this.

Yeah, it's good to explore things on your own a little. Just be smart and safe about and ask questions.

Hear, hear, Lydia! I had a related thought watching a trainer last week. She was just training the woman rather than empowering her to become an independent learner. Being an independent learner opens doors all through life because you know you can find it out (whatever 'it' is in any particular case), learn how to do it and off you go. Not saying that trainers have no part to play but it's not to keep people dependent. (Hard if your income depends on it, though.)

Thanks for that information Lydia and Silverbirch. I noticed that my trainer has changed not just my program but also the way he relates to me. He is asking me more questions about what I'm doing and why; he is pointing out others' workouts and asking me what's right or not about how they are doing things, etc. In short, I think he's training me to be more independent. Good move on his part. Of course, he is discreet about critiquing others at the gym.

I changed my avatar mostly to show off my forearm. That's me this past June with my first stained glass piece, representing a canyon I had hiked.

Nice work, Tejas! Muscles and stained glass! And lovely smile.

Thanks, Silverbirch. I got lucky and got good smile genes but those muscles and the stained glass were just plain hard work