My motto for April (and the last 10 years):

Eat clean and get into the gym!

I'm sore everywhere right now and am taking a rest day except for yoga.
not following my own advice and it's only April 1.

I've been competing in the CrossFit sectionals and will do week 2 sectional WOD tomorrow- it hits my strengths this time...dead lifts, box jumps and push ups...so I hope to do a lot better than last week's double-under fiasco,

The daffodils are blooming and it's snowing lightly

Happy April Fools everyone!
Mel: Had to check my own outdoors after reading your weather report...daffodils blooming...check. Snow? Negative! Woot. Wet, rain, but I'll take it.

I need a rest day today but I'm going in to do some yoga and because I know one thing leads to another there will be other amazing feats of strength as well. (done by someone else there I"m hoping)

Best of luck with the CrossFit sectional Mel! I"ll do a few deadlifts this weekend in spririt for you. I was planning to do the outdoor yoga held on the National Mall during the Cherry Blossom Festival tomorrow but it looks like the weather may change my mind. I've got mats for everyone in my fam to go...figures. Maybe I'll just wait till my own tree blooms and pretend I did it.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Wow - it is April already...

Good luck in your CF sectional Mel!

Lydia - outdoor yoga on the National Mall sounds fabulous. Hope the weather works out!

Wow. Did I say I needed a rest? So for the first time EVER I almost passed out. Yep. Things went dark and I had very little control over motor movement. Weird.

So here's the set up...its half way through yoga...and it not too intense just right and we have rolled up our mats half way. We have our heels elevated on the roll of the mat, the balls of our feet and our toes on the floor. We descend into a wide legged squat. Actually, the finished position is one that I often use to warm up for my squats, your down at the bottom of a wide squat with the elbows pushed into the insides of both knees. I do this all the time without the benefit of a rolled mat. No problem, I hang out in this spot for the duration, she tells a story we hang out...then we stand up. No problem.

Second round...since I thought this was not a challenge for me, I get rid of the mat. I got on the flat ground, feet flat on the floor, (barefoot of course it's yoga) and I hang out there. Yea, it's more challenging but I'm thinking this is what everyone else is feeling who don't do this everyday. We hang out for a while and then I push up from the heels and come out of the the squat position....and stumble forward maybe four spaces while everything is during dark..OMG. Never ever ever has that happened. Freaked me out.

I know my blood pressure is pretty low...my pulse is pretty low when resting and I was pretty comfortable...wonder if all the blood rushed into my lower body causing slower circulation to the head in the position for too long. Hmmm. Maybe I was hungry. I don't know. I probably just rose too fast out of the position..

Anyway, just an experience to tuck away into my head. Wow. Humbling indeed.

Course...I also only had about three hours of sleep last night. And the night before was also a troublesome sleep...lots of variables here.

May everyone else be careful out there!

Lydia- really sounds like you either stood up too quickly or low blood sugar. I had that happen when I first started CrossFit- found myself blacking out and almost on the floor after "Barbara". Yoga under the cherry trees sounds fabulous, but it's COLD out there. DD called on Thursday to tell me Columbus was having a blizzard, so at least you missed that. I don't think any stuck around.

I did a fairly gentle yoga session yesterday and feel almost human. Sectional WOD at 11 am. I already did it once and had a good score, but I'm sure I can eek out a few more reps since I'm doing it after a rest day instead of after a brutal kettle bell WOD.

I also "carbed up" last night- see? it's all in the perception (rationalization). I ate way too many pretzels

Lydia, my goodness! Glad to hear that you're OK now.

I'm not doing any serious lifting until Monday. I did HIIT, cardio, abs and core today. Yesterday I did an exercise in which you lean on one arm while standing with your body stretched out to the side in a plank. Then you raise a db with the free hand, up to about 10 o'clock position, and lower the db very s-l-o-w-l-y. In this case the trainer was there to make certain it was very slow. Oh my, I can hardly move my arms today.

I also did front squats and that was a challenge. They will get easier, I'm sure.

ps: I like pretzels too.

Hey! I was at the Tidal Basin yesterday, along with 10s of 1,000s of my closest friends. I didn't see you ...

And, yes, it hailed.

I'm super sore today. I don't think it's from lifting (which I did in DC, in a pretty good hotel gym as these things go), but from hiking around DC in dress boots. They're comfie boots (Born) as these things go, but not exactly meant for long-distance city slogs. The price I pay for packing light, I guess.

Have a great weekend, all.

//b. strong,
Kim

Hello ladies!

April 1, 2011- Secret Service Snatch Test (12kg for women)
10 minutes AMRAP: 104 reps

April 3, 2011 - KB Met-con (name?), 12kg for women
4 rounds for time:
5 snatches each hand
10 swings
10 burpees
rest
11 minutes 45 seconds

Sacha, nice job on those workouts!

Lydia, I've done the almost passing out thing, but usually while going for a max lift, unless I forget to breathe during a metcon.

Mel, good luck with sectionals. I decided to skip wod2 and thus drop myself out this week, because CF competition doesn't really interest me (not that I'd stand a chance right now even if it was), and I wanted the extra rest day so I could try running long without being trashed beforehand. (didn't seem to make any difference on the run, though)

For April Fool's Day, I ran 24 miles, to celebrate 24 months with my trainer, since it was our 2 yr anniversary there. Just seemed convenient and too deja vu to pass up. The running part went well, but the weather was awful the last ten miles, pouring rain and I didn't have a rain jacket I could reasonably run in, so I ended up soaked and freezing in my cotton-ish sweatshirt. :P I finished, and my boy helped me by fixing me a cup of hot tea and warming a blanket for me while I hopped in a hot shower. ("hopped"? er, more like waddled, lol) Recovery was good, no stomach issues this time, and the mileage seemed fine, so I guess my training plan is working alright. I would like to up my speed a little, just to minimize time on the trail for the ultra, so planning to concentrate on making sure I'm getting in the CF wods that include shorter distances, and also just trying to keep my pace up on any runs I do solo. Somewhere, somehow, I've lost track of my wristwatch, so I might have to break down and buy a new one, so I can at least have a chance of checking my pace on runs. I think I've been slowing down since I lost the watch, but didn't realize it. The Garmins seem like a cool thing, but not in the budget, so I'll do it the old fashioned way with a $10 watch and vague idea of mileage markers, lol.

Ran about 4 miles last night, today will be CF, still following the mainsite wods so it's "Michael", 3 rounds of run 800, 50 back extensions, 50 sit-ups. Going to see if my trainer will let me try it rx'd and with ghd sit-ups. Have done it twice at home going the back ext and ghd style sit-ups on the exercise ball, so would like to try it at the gym. The ghd at the gym always seems easier to me than using the ball...the ball just chews up the abs and spits them out, but then, our ghd is fondly dubbed the "ghetto HD" since it is an old powermax POS with a flat seat and no cushion to speak of. I bet the ones with the rounded and very thick cushions give you a little more of the stability work than the one we have. It's on the wishlist...sigh.

Hope somebody somewhere gets some sunshine. It's just rain and rain and rain here, and not the sissy sprinklings we're used to. I'm ready for sun and warmer temps, with my long runs over the 20 mile mark now.

Good grief, the workouts posted here are stunning! I'm making my way learning the front squat with a 25 pound bar, and a back lunge with the bar also, while using the valslides.

I do have a cute story from today. I can do deadlifts with the T bar at 162 pounds. As I walked over to the area where the T bar is there were two young men doing deadlifts with that weight. Well, you would think it was a ton They strained, they grunted, they groaned while looking around to see if they had an audience.

My trainer didn't see this display but I told him about it. He laughed and told me that if I saw them again I should just ask if they mind if I joined them. He said "then wait for them to ask you if they should take some weight off for you." I just love being 65!

I will see the orthopedist again next week. I've been doing the activations he gave me. There isn't much pain or swelling but the area where the calcification is appears to be more defined. I have no idea what that means, if anything. I'll know more next week.

Rhonda: You crack me up. Oh please do ask to join them. I can't wait to hear their reaction after they see you pull the same weight as them. :

Cheryl: 24 miles! Seriously! This is almost a marathon distance...you know like people train just to be able to do that! I'll just say it again...you amaze me. And in the rain...I saw the national weather forecast this morning as I was making my bed...I thought of you and the rain and your run....Best of luck on these runs.

Kim: I did make it to the Cherry Blossom Festival on Sunday. It was just too wet on Saturday. It almost seemed like more bother than it was worth...well, at least with two kids in tow. But...it was very pretty and fun to see so many people taking pictures under the trees. We drove in as close as we thought we could, found parking in a packed garage and then took the Metro the rest of the way. Since I was still feeling dizzy that was a fun ride...not. Maybe next year it will be warmer and I'll be able to bring a yoga mat too.

Sacha: How are you doing?! How's that beautiful son? Great workout too!

Mel: Well girlfriend..how did you do at sectionals?! The weather in Columbus was pretty nasty. Mom had to scrape snow off the car in the parking lot after work. She's so done with all that. While I miss my life in Columbus I DO NOT miss the weather. Winters that drag out that long seem like a test of the wills.

Mine was pretty satisfying today. Began with an 8:30am vinyasa class, added a fourth set to my upper body workout and followed up with 30 minutes of cardio. The classes are really enjoyable but wow they really eat up my gym time.

So I found this interesting little calories burned calculator for yoga...just out of curiosity. At my weight and an hour duration the estimation is 429 calories. Oh I SOOO don't think so. But...it was a little sumpthin'sumpthin' because I was ravenous after the class and really had to talk myself into staying for the rest of my workout.

Anyway...just thought I'd share. Cheryl..wish I could package this sunshine for you to keep in your pocket for the next run. It's great running weather here...

Lydia - I regularly wear my heart rate monitor during yoga, and the highest I ever got for a burn in a 30 minute session was 185. And that was a really hard one.

Rhonda - love your tbar story! I want to hear about after you join them!

Cheryl - we have a lot of sun down here, too - wish I could send you some of it.

Sacha - great workout!

Kim - ouch, the wrong shoes make for a bad few days after a tour of the city!

I blew off my strength training yesterday - I wasn't in a great place in my head, so did some yoga instead. Will probably run today, we'll see.

Good day everyone!

I can FINALLY do kipping pull ups (not very many)

so I won't get a big fat zero when they show up in a sectional WOD. We are on week 3 of six. So far I'm doing OK- in the top half of the pack. It's a small pack at my age class.

Rhonda- great story really mess with them and slap another plate on there

Mel

Go, Mel! Congratulations on the KPU...woot! Good luck with the rest of sectionals! Did you do wod3 yet? I did it Weds, and only got 15 pts, but that was a PR Jerk for me, so I was lucky to get that many reps without knocking myself out, lol.

Rhonda, nice work on the T-bar deadlift! Don't give those scrawny lads too much grief. Everybody's got to start somewhere.

Lydia, sorry you had rain for the fest, but it sounds pretty! I've been having tree blossom envy here.

Shannon, feel free to box some up and send it my way. My trainer and his wife are off to sunny Hawaii this weekend...sigh.

We did "JT" yesterday. Never done this wod before. It was all push: 21-15-9 of HSPU, ring dip, push-up. I'm not that hot at handstand push-ups yet, so opted to do DB OH press instead, and used a band for bar dips. It was a slog, since it just trashes your shoulders. :P

Not sure what the wod is today, since the mainsite is showing a rest day, and my trainer hasn't posted anything yet. One thing I'm not loving about following the mainsite is that I just feel like it's too random for me to plan my runs, and they don't seem to care much if they totally trash you, expecting you to take a day off every 4th day, which I do not. Also, not knowing till the night before or the day of...my trainer wasn't predictable, but I could ask him for the lowdown so I could plan my week ahead of time, and fit my runs in around work and gym wods. I might have to start working a few days behind the schedule. That's all I can think to do that will let me fit in the right number and mix of running workouts into each week. Just over 8 weeks to go, which means it's crunch time for the run training. Can't mess this up just because everybody else is focused on CF Games prep.

Cheryl, it sounds like quite a balancing act you have there in order to plan. Good luck with all of that.

I learned this week that doing reverse lunges while holding a 25 pound bar on your back is nothing compared to holding it above your head.