Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Bits and Pieces

After I have a meltdown like I did on Saturday, everything looks bleak and I often feel like I just won't be able to get out of that funk ... and then I see something like this {I tried to embed the video - didn't work! Do take a moment to click on the hyperlink and watch it on YouTube.}


The CrossFit Games
The CrossFit Games took place this past weekend. I wasn't able to watch it live (because of the 10 hour time difference) but I watched most of it via YouTube and the videos on the crossfit. com. Talk about getting the motivation to bury those voices of self-doubt and pick yourself up again!

I took away several things from that video clip:
1. Wow - look at their strength
2. Imagine how hard they had to work to get to where they are
3. Damn, I do a lot of those exercises; granted, not at that weight or at that speed, but still, I do them
4. Not all the competitors go continuously; they need to stop and rest too
5. It's all about giving it your all and finishing - the support from the crowd for the last competitor was fantastic

It definitely gave me an extra bit of confidence that I needed. Does CrossFit still intimidate me? Hell ya.  Will I give up? Absolutely not!


My CrossFit Progress
The cardio aspect is actually really tough - all that jumping around, box jumps and burpees in particular, but it's getting better.

I am now in the advanced group of CrossFitters. I had my first advanced class yesterday. It's a much smaller group which is nice because we get more focused attention (torture) and we can work on technique. The workouts are brutal, but they're invigorating too! I was especially giddy after yesterday's session because of my 100 kg. (220 lbs.) dead lift record! Yay!! Our Coach hit a personal best herself yesterday too - 120 kg!!! Wow!!! I teased her and said it was comforting to know that in case of an emergency she could just pick a few of us up and rush us to safety ;)

My jump rope skips are definitely improving. Yesterday we were supposed to jump for 2 min straight. I got to 1 min 55 sec before the damn rope got caught in my shoe! Arrgh! Before I was proud when I got to 1 min straight; to be at almost 2 min feels great.


C25K
I'm progressing through C25K really, really slowly, but I'm still doing it. I finished Day 2 of Week 3 on Sunday. I upped my speed just a little and kept it at a 0.2% incline throughout. The 3-min running stretches aren't horrible; I know any difficulty I feel with it is really in my head. You can read about my progress here. I hope to finish the last day before I travel and then hopefully do at least week 4 while I'm away.

Back in April I signed up for a 10km which was to be held on November 23. On Saturday I got an email saying that it has been rescheduled to October 27. They said you could request a refund if you wanted ... I have to admit that I felt like canceling for a second. I mean, that's pretty much 1 month earlier. I'm having enough trouble just getting to 1km now - will I be ready for 10km by the end of October? I decided to just stick with it anyway. If I feel completely unprepared by the time of the race, then I can always bow out - but for right now, I'm challenging myself to step it up. Update: I just received an email saying that the race is now on November 3rd. {Don't know why they keep changing their mind!} At least that buys me another week. I'm going to keep on training and hope that I'm ready on the day of the race.


Other Fitness
I'm totally behind in my boxing workouts, but I hope that I can get at least one session in tomorrow. My arms have been so sore from CrossFit. I don't want to overdo it, but I also don't want to let go of the boxing. It's SO cathartic!!

I haven't made it to a single Body Balance/Yoga/Pilates class. The scheduling is all off because of the summer and I've just been too busy. I really do need to make some time to do some stretching and relaxation though. I think it'll help me keep my focus more when it comes to CrossFit.

I've been wanting to go swimming for ages, and today, I finally made it to the pool! I did 20 laps. It felt really good to be in the water. My arms were still pretty tired, but I also felt like the different movement and the resistance of the water did me some good. Although I had a ton of errands to run today, I did take 20-minutes to soak up some sun :)



Life
My main mission for today was to get rid of all the snacks and munchies that were in the house from the time my parents were here. Yesterday I mindlessly sat down with a bag of crisps - I seriously cannot have that stuff in the house! So I packed everything together in a bag and gave them to my housekeeper today. I feel better now that all that stuff is out of the house!

I got my visa for Italy :) Now I can finally start really getting excited for the trip.

I've steadily been making my way through my to-do list. The heat has been brutal though, and even though I'm driving around in my air conditioned car, the sun is merciless. It's in the 50's everyday (120's Fahrenheit). There's only so much an A/C can do!  I'm just glad there's hardly any humidity. We may burn as we walk from the house to the car, but at least we don't sweat that much! I made the mistake of leaving the house without any water today -- I definitely won't make that mistake tomorrow!


2 comments:

  1. Cross Fit scares me - I have a good friend that is doing it and he loves it but I think I will save that challenge for when I lose a few more pounds. Right now the C25K is important to me - so I hope I can stick with it.
    I totally get how watching others do amazing things, such as Cross Fit can get you motivated to do it yourself. It inspires you! We watched the Iron Man race the other day and it was so awesome - people with all different types of challenges tackling it and doing it!
    Good for you for getting rid of the junk food. We have absolutely NONE here and on occasion I find myself wishing there was SOMETHING bad I could munch on - but thankfully there isn't.
    Hope you have a great week!

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  2. I watched the you tube video on cross fit. Those people are amazing. I'll leave it to the youngsters. :)

    We never get to the 120's here but we do get up to 106 and 108. If we go out in the heat of the day, we're just getting from the car to the house or into a store to shop. It is almost painful for the sun to hit any bare skin. We always look forward to winter when it is nice here.

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Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! I can use all the support I can get :)