Results: 22’16″, Women’s Rx’d.

So for those of you I know IRL, you’ll know I’ve finally left the nest and living in the big smoke.  Living in the city has it’s perks – but also its dangers: friends so close we’re neighbours, having over 10 pubs within 500m radius and also work only la 10 minute walk away.

Which means all of a sudden, I’ve lost reading time on the train (up to 2 hours a day) and the closeness of having a box near by.

So right now I can feel the mental and physical stress my body is under. So from yesterday, I knuckled down and got my nutrition (lactose-Paleo) and training (Crossfit FootBall WODs) back into gear. I also begin BJJ tonight at the local boxing gym – which is also where I’m taking myself each morning for the WOD.

I never realized just how hard it was to get up everyday and train in solitude. Really hand it to anyone who does!

I wouldn’t call myself a runner through any stretch of the imagination, but I do run. I run and I love it, but I’m not a ‘runner’. I guess if I need a label I’m a Crossfitter, and one of the eye-openers that Crossfit presented to me was the fact that even though I enjoy running on its own, doing it during a WOD is a whole new world of hurt. So I never want to be a ‘runner’. What I really need is runningness.

I see runningness as the ability to run at a decent pace during a WOD where you are also putting your body through other movements that generally try their best to limit you in some way. Whether it’s squats frying your quads, or KB swings taking out your core stability, or box jumps competing for the same lung capacity. Basically it’s a mental barrier, and the only way to beat it, is to play the mind game. Oh and run. A runner will tell you that in order to improve you running, you just need to run more.

I kind of agree, but for me the reason to run more is to find that place in my head where the doubt starts and find a way to eliminate it. The running I do during WODs has become an active recovery component to prepare for other movements, so I just don’t give it the attention it deserves. Improving my runningness will no doubt improve my WOD times, at least for all those lung-busting metcons that only seem to overwhelm me when they include a 200m or 400m run.

I have neglected my runningness in the last year, but that changed last night when I hit the pavement for a 6km run on my trusty old route. I think isolating running and gradually adding it to my schedule will help me focus on winning the mental game. So, starting with last night’s run, I plan to add 1 or 2 more evening runs to my schedule and aim to get back to my pre-Crossfit volume.

CrossFit Benchmark Workout Narf

Probably the only one I forgot to list on this site: Narf.  Which is Fran backwards!

9-15-21
Thrusters @ 40kg
Pull-ups

5:36

My PB for normal Fran is about 5:14 from memory. So was very happy with this result, given the break and cardio condition!

Nothing like pushing your cardio respiratory endurance – and boy was mine shot. Was happy with times and intensity, recovery was ordinary. And yes, it’s probably because of the amount of cigarettes I’m trying to make up from a bender of a weekend. Sigh – yes, I gave in.

Times:

• 1:21
• didn’t record
• 1:24
• 1:27
• 1:33
• 1:30
• 1:29
• 1:31
• 1:34
• 1:30

Core, Overhead

So my strength program started yesterday, and what a day to start: Luke, and today Nate.  Both we key weaknesses: overhead strength (hand-stand, thrusters), ring dips.  Overall my shoulders were a wreck but I felt by scaling the workouts appropriate and focusing on technique and range of motion, I was able to illicit the response I wanted (i.e. building strength).

My coach today also gave me a few pointers on getting my first muscle up, which was around keeping the rings in close to my chest as I kip up.

Luke – modified (Tuesday AM)

5 rounds for time of:
9 HSPU – on 2 plates
10 Ring dips
21 Thrusters 30kg

Front Squats (Tuesday PM)

5x60kg
5x70kg
5x80kg
3x90kg
1×100
1×110

Nate – modified (Wednesday AM)

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

4 Trans Muscle ups
4 HSPU – on 2 plates
8 Kettlebell swing 32kg

Last Saturday was the tryouts for the CFX Affiliate Team: two guys and two girls (plus reserves) to represent us at the CrossFit Regionals.

WOD 1: “Jackie”

1000m row

50 thrusters @ 15kg

30 pull-ups

I need to take a leaf out of Liz L’s book: she’s a master of pacing herself through high reps. Watching her work her way through the middle stretch of Jackie, she was doing it absolutely right. When I got to it, I was sucking wind.

Time: 13:47

WOD 2

3RM overhead squat in 10 minutes

3 reps done heavy is more to my liking than 50 at lightweight. I was happy to see this one come up, and curious to see what sort of numbers I could pull. Last time we tested OHS max, I tweaked my neck trying to rescue a missed lift.

The 47.5kg felt good.

My first attempt at 50kg was unstable – my hands were too close together. My second attempt was rushed. Given a third attempt, I’m confident I could have made the 50kg triple.

As it was, it’s more than my previous 1RM.

3RM: 47.5kg
2RM: 50kg

WOD 3

AMRAP in 10 minutes:
1 power clean 60/40kg
5 Pull ups
10 Push Ups
15 Squats
Power clean reps increases by 1 each round

As ever with Cindy, my push-ups were my weakness: I could bang out 5 pull-ups and 15 squats consistently, but I was struggling with 5s and 3s when the push-ups came around.

Reps: 5 rounds, 5 power cleans

WOD 4

5 rounds for time of:
5 overhead squat @ 60/30kg
10 ring dips
15 box jumps

I went into this one determined not to scale. I knew I couldn’t compete on a speed basis against the other girls if we were all band-assisted. I also knew I could finish the work – it was just going to be slow.

The dips were ground out one at a time; having a judge on hand to count me through them was invaluable. Thanks, Alex.

I never thought there’d be a day where I’d look at overhead squats as a rest break.

Time 25:19

As it was, I finished fifth out of the five contenders. But I finished all the WODs, I didn’t scale, and the only section where I felt disappointed in what I brought to the WOD were the thrusters in Jackie.

And that, as it turns out, was enough.

CrossFit Girls Workout

3 Rounds 10 Deadlifts 70kg 50 Double Unders 3 Rope Climbs