Whooo- it was COLD today here for the first time. We did a "warm-up" run at crossfit tonight which nearly resulted in frostbite

Tonight was the hardest WOD I think I've ever done.
5 rounds for time:

12 deadlifts
9 hang power cleans
6 push jerks

The rx'ed weight was 105 pounds for women...I started at 85 and stripped 10 off my bar after round one and many "failure to cleans"

Sorry I've been so scarce around here. The constant darkness has really gotten to me, along with my miserable commute. I've decided that this month I MUST perk up and be human again. I've made it through all my workouts and food has been on (except for that Halloween night ), but mentally I've been in a very deep hole. Time to come back out

Hope everyone else has been well and made it safesly through Halloween!

Mel

Today, the WOD was:

5 rounds of
14 pistols
7 muscle ups

So I was messing around before the workout and did ring dips with a band at which point it was deemed I'd do those as part of the workout. Then the trainer decided I should try pullups with the band. So we did that and I was able to do some of those. So I alternated 7 ring dips and 7 pullups, both with bands.

The pistols were painful and then the after the workout, we had to do 30 squat box jumps. So my butt is hurting today

Good job, nelie! Pistols ARE hard and my butt always is sore after them. I do ring dips with a very light band too. I've yet to get close to a muscle up. Don't think I ever will!

Mel: Noticed the nice new number for years at or under goal weight. That in itself is an accomplishment. Congrats. I have missed you the last few weeks but thought perhaps it was the business of work/travel. I suppose in essence that is true. Sorry that you were having a rough go of it. Fatigue, combined with your daily commute, changes in season, stress of work...whatever I can do to help, let me know. And I'll consider you the canary in the coal mine here and get out my own gear for fending off the winter blahs... That light is in a box somewhere....

Boys are home from school today and yesterday. Spent a nice weekend walking on trails in the Shenandoah National Park http://www.visitshenandoah.com/ DH was on a mission to get us there before all the leaves fell. We really should have done it two weeks ago but last weekend was still really beautiful. DS2 loved it. He's a bit of a loose cannon anyway and made me very anxious as he sprinted around the trails and danced just a little too close to the edges for me.

What trails did you go on? We've been there a few times and went there camping a few times (only once this past summer).

Oh my goodness Nelie, I have truly have no idea. We drove to the tippy tippy top of somewhere (good I'm paying attention to my location right.) and then got out and walked on a path that supposedly was part of the AT marked with white spots on trees. Yes I can hear you laughing at me all the way over here. We did get a beautiful view of the valley below us with iconic red barns and white farms houses and patchwork fields everywhere. No bears. Good thing. Wasn't really in the mood for that.

I did have a guide book in the car that DH flopped into my lap. I took a quick breeze through it but oddly enough became entranced by the first aid section as well as what do to if you meet a .....(fill in with wildlife choice from your nightmares). He looks over at me as snickers something like "figures, you'd be looking how to improve your chances against the copperhead snake."

Anyway, I'll ask him where we were. He was there this time last year as well. All alone, on top of the mountain, and calling me on his cell back in Ohio. Pitiful. Really.

I am rolling my eyes at you!

We have seen a bear in Shenandoah but we were in the car. My husband also saw one when he was hiking alone but the bear left when he saw them. And oh yeah, when we went camping, we heard the bears.

Morning, ladies!

Mel, I've been feeling it, too. Must be going around. I ended up taking a rest week this past week, which helped. I don't think I was overtraining, so much as just stressing about finances, but it still helped, just having one less thing on my mind, and probably letting the body fully recover once in a while is a good idea. Started back easy yesterday with a skill day, some 3 rep lifts and gymnastics skills practice, one 1000 meter row, but easy pace. I feel better for taking the time off.

I also decided to drop out of the strongman competition this year, and probably won't pursue that again. It just didn't appeal like it once did, so I decided to quit stressing myself out over it, and will volunteer at the event instead. I like playing with the strongman stuff and lifting heavy, but the competition side and timed events just aren't what I'd consider "fun", if that makes sense.

The sun has made an appearance today, so I plan to get outside as much as I can, maybe will do some blackberry bramble cutting, since the things are trying to sneak up again and swallow the house.

Great workouts all around.

Next week we are signing up with a gym (DH + I) that offers child care. We are SO excited. We'll be doing a one week pass at first. I hope to share some great workouts next week.

As for now, we're still in the middle of renovations!

Today was tough. We did 21-15-9 of ring rows and overhead squats. Yesterday I did ring rows as a sub for muscle ups so yeah my arms did not want to cooperate. I did my best. I also only used 43 lbs for overhead squats BUT the thing is, I was able to actually do the squats. I remember the first time doing overhead squats, I could not do them.

A girl in the previous class hit her head with the barbell on the overhead squat and she was using 93 lbs. She started crying but kept going. No blood she said so no reason to stop.

No CF tomorrow so hopefully my sore self will recover a bit.

Morning, everyone. Haven't been here in a while, and I sure as heck haven't had abs like in my pic for a while, either. Correlation, or causation?

I've still been working out, though less often. My eating, though, has been terrible. I've decided to kick it into high gear this month, rather than the usual "wait until after the holidays" thing. After all, that's two more months out of my life of feeling sludgy.

On some positive news, I am 11 months and 3 days into my "no nutra-sweet" 2010 New Year's resolution. I have to admit to a bit of cheating, because I chew sugar-free gum while flying. But, I'm pretty proud that I haven't had a diet soda (regular, either) or fake sugar (real, either) in my coffee for nearly a year. Small victories, eh?

b. strong,

KAW

Kaw: This is a huge victory. Okay. So I REALLY want to know....what differences have you noticed being nutra-sweet free. The concept of being total sweet free fascinates me. I'm just kinda there....but oddly enough that diet soda always seems to hop into the grocery cart for me. After the fact I think gee, I could have iced tea or water with lemon.

Nice to see you post! Good luck these next two months. I'm right there with you. Working hard these last two months of the year so I can breeze into January without a few extra friends.

Lydia - The biggest change for me in giving up nutrasweet has been, um, nothing. Seriously, I don't feel any different, physically. And, although it's nice not to be spending all that money on diet soda, I probably make up for it in coffee and tea. Maybe I'll live longer. Then again, maybe I'll die younger, because I won't have as many preservatives running around in my bloodstream.

FWIW, I'm not one of these people that notices a huge difference in giving up wheat, or milk, or peanuts, or sugar, or whatever else is the vice of the day. Maybe my body's not all that sensitive to this stuff, or maybe I'm just not all that attune to my body's sensitivity to this stuff.

b. strong,
KAW

I wonder if people are truly sensitive or if avoiding wheat/milk/nuts/sugar etc. leads to a wide variety of "off limits" foods.

It's like vegans. Vegans are often thin because they don't eat a lot of high calorie foods. No meats, no dairy, no eggs, no (white) sugar. So what's left? Not much that's high calorie, except some things like oils and avocados. Sure, if nobody touched a pizza, ice cream, restaurant food - I suspect they would be a lot thinner too.

Good job on the no nutrisweet stuff. I haven't been able to give the stuff up (even when pregnant which I admit leads to a lot of guilt on my part). Good for you.

I've been off of artificial sweetners for nearly 2 years now, and don't miss them (mostly diet soda). To me they all - even Splenda - have a chemical taste that I find annoying. I suspect I've eaten a few things with AS at get-togethers, etc. but knowingly, no.