A strange kind of competitive

I very rarely find myself feeling competitive. Mostly, I am just stubborn. I decided, I am going to run a marathon. Sure, I can not run a mile; but this book says I can work my way up to it in 6 months. The Disney Marathon is in 8 month. I will do that one and will get a kick ass metal for it to boot (it is a gold Mickey head). I got a very bad case of bronchitis that lasted 2 rounds of 10 days worth of Antibiotics, but damn it I paid $135. I ran it a month later. I was really slow but I finished. When I hit the 25 mile mark I wanted it to be over so I ran as hard as I could for the last 1.2 miles. The greatest thing about the Disney marathon is the 26 mile mark. When you hit that sign you have to round a blind corner and there is a gospel choir that sings "Hallelujah" when they see you come around the corner. I shit you not. I almost had to stop because I started laughing so hard, but you can see the finish line from there. That made me push on.

I digress... I find that when I do get competitive, it is aimed at boys. I think we all at Crossfit have someone we focus on. Someone that we look at and think, I am going to be faster than him/her. My person is Andrew. This is no surprise to Nagle. He started it. I think it is a good thing. It pushes you to try harder than you thought you could. One might think, I am going to die, but look if I just try a little harder or push a little longer I might just beat Nagle or hell look I am close to Jack, crap PUSH THROUGH!

Even with the competitive aspects to Crossfit there is still this overwhelming supportive nature too. It reminds me of one of my earliest memories of my friend Tamara. When I was 5 I was scared of the high dive at Riddle (the University that both of our parents worked at). Tamara climbed up to the top with me, held my hand, and jumped off the 5m spring board with me. Side note, Tamara was 4. She truly is badass.

For Mandy

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes - (2)5 block meals
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon Agave

2 tablespoons chopped pecans - topping
2 tablespoon real maple syrup - topping

Coconut oil - for the pan

12 extra egg whites to bring the protein up 35 gms/person
oz of berries to bring the carbs up to ~45 gms/person

Mix everything - sometimes that nut butter is clumpy
The recipe above makes 2 good size pancakes.

~from paleo zone blog

Muscle Failure, Road Burn and a JackAss

So people keep talking about muscle failure. It is very sick, but I was jealous that I was not achieving muscle failure. I think maybe I thought I wasn't working hard enough. I like to work hard it makes me feel strong. So anyway, muscle failure is when your muscles say WTF I don't think so in the middle of some activity you are doing repeatedly. I hit muscle failure the other day. We were doing "dyanmic" push ups - seriously I think there is a better name, maybe you are effing crazy push ups - and I couldn't push myself up anymore. I mean like really, my head said come on Melinda - woman up and do it - and my body said I don't think so. It was pretty cool. I think this has happened lots of times during my cfit time, but I just didn't know it had a name. So is this a good thing or bad thing? Does it mean you are reaching the target you are supposed to reach? I don't know, but it did make me feel slightly bad ass.

So back to those freakin dynamic push ups - I still do pushups on my knees for the most part because I can get the full range of motion this way. I practice during my warm up doing big kid push ups, but never really do I do them in a WOD. Anywho - the dynamic ones you had to push yourself off the ground once you push up. I don't know where my head was this day. I couldn't do simple math calculations to figure out 80% of my deadlift, couldn't get my station set up - does this happen to you guys? Just sort of mentally check out a crossfit? Sometimes I feel like an idiot - like I checked my brain cells out at the garage door. Sorry - back to the push ups. So I decide I'm going to do the dynamic push ups on the black mat, on my knees. I practiced during the warm up - no probs. About half way through the first round, my knees were like hello, whats going on. Second round - knees were saying we don't think this was a good idea. By the last round, knees said you dumb ass you are going to pay.

Pay I did. 'Member road burn when you fell off your bike or fell down roller blading. You don't do that either? Damn - guess I'm clumsy. Well, I got road burn. Bad. On both knees. So I get home and check it out a little closer. There are pieces of black mat in there. And hair. EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Out comes hydrogen peroxide into the wound. First pour - not so bad. I guess it took just a few seconds for the pain to reach my brain - I blacked out a little and saw stars and wavy lines. I mean, holy hannah - it was rough. Its still rough several days later. And painful doing nothing. And hard to explain to dirty minded party goers when you are wearing a skirt. But I digress... So the moral is, set up and forethought are important aspects of crossfit - don't you think? Example: lifting - a strong set up can make the difference between success vs. failed attempt. Same thing with what Dunsey says about thinking about how long it might take you - set it up in your head. Mentally prepare. Also, I must do real push ups now.

Finally, good people of bullcitycrossfitters, I leave you with a tale of the jackass. Now most people at crossfit durham are wonderful, kind, supportive badassess. They support you on your OWN journey to being a badass. But occasionally, you come across an ass who thinks his journey is more important or more badass. I do substitutions, I scale and I am totally OK with that. I want to ask the jackass who makes snide remarks and jokes about those that scale - did you walk before you crawled? Well if you did, then you are just a real badass and I will eat my words. But if not, get over yourself and support your fellow badasses wherever they may be on their journey. We'd really rather you be a BADass than a JACKass.

Box Jumps

I just recently moved to the big girl box. I was still nervous today about incorporating them into a WOD that was not a chipper. I did them in a WOD last week but I was able to knock them all out at the start of the WOD when I was still fresh. Today was 3 rounds of 5 min each AMRAP of 3 cleans, 6 burpees (I hate burpees), and 9 box jumps. The thing that I feared the most, missing the box, happened 3 times. Guess what. I did not die. I didn't even get hurt. I do think if it had happened on the open box it would have been worse.... So, I will stick to the solid box. It is nice when you do something you are scared of and then it isn't bad.

Crossfit Goals

I read through the Level I and II Crossfit fitness goals. I can do all of 1 except for the pull-ups. Very annoying! I am also capable of doing a lot of the Level II things, but not all. I can not run a 7 minute mile. I was very proud of my recent jump to 8:40. For a long time I was stuck at 9:30. This 7 minute mark has kind of bummed me out.

These are the 10 general skills:
1. Cardiovascular/respiratory endurance - The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units,
to apply force.
4. Flexibility - the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum.
6. Speed- The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.

Lets see where I fall shall we...

1. Endurance - Hmmm, I ran a marathon in January, so I will give myself a check on this one but I still need to work on it.
2. Stamina- I really do not understand the difference between this and Endurance. On Friday we did 325 squats, I did not get out of breath but around squat 270, I fell on my ass because I hit muscle failure. I got up and was able to go again but my left quad did ask me what the hell I thought I was doing. I told it to shut up and got up and continued squatting.
3. Strength- No (note to self: hang out with Mandy more, maybe her awesomeness will rub off)
4. Flexibility- Check, I can touch my toes and do a back-bend among other flexible stuff.
5. Power - Again, not sure I understand the difference between this and strength. Solution must be to hang out with Mandy more.
6. Speed- Sort of but needs work, Half check
7. Coordination- Massive fail. Should watch Daniel to hone this skill
8. Agility- Fail. Again, study Daniel.
9. Balance- I am okay at this, half check
10. Accuracy- Fail

4 out of 10.... This badass thing is going to take a lot of work.

Dori and Bea Inspired

After Dori posted the link to T Storm's page I read every post on her blog. She is f@#%ing hilarious. Dori has convinced me to enter the Carolina Fitness Challenge in December. The conversation went like this.....

Dori: "Are you competing in December to be the strongest person in North Carolina?"
Bea: "I have no chance of winning."
(Dunsmore walks by)
Bea: "She is the fittest person in North Carolina" (I point at Sarah)
Dori: (looking somewhat disappointed by me) "So, you should try anyway!"
Sarah: "You totally should."
Dori: "We can train together"

Needless to say, I am training for the fitness challenge. This is partly because I do not want to disappoint Dori and partly because Dunsmore told me to. Jack is suppose to be telling me what to do,which in itself is intimidating. Anyone that does not know Dori's husband, Jack does not understand the crazy shit he come up with. So, Monday begins Dori's and my quest to be a badass.

I even made bracelets for us.

TStorm Becomes a Badass

So this is a blog by Thera Storm at CrossFit Coastal. She's pretty funny and she blogs about her quest to become a badass. I, too, would like to be a badass, but she's totally gotta an advantage with a name like TStorm. DWiggen is so not a badass name.

http://tstormbecomesbadass.com/about/

Box

I do not know why jumping on a box is scary at all, but it is. Images of bruised shins seem to float through the head right before you make the leap. This past week was the week of PR jumps. It ranged from people finally getting the nerve to jump on the 12 inch box to Jack's 53.5 inch jump. (I stole this picture from Lindsay's Facebook page, thank you Lindsay.)I went from jumping only on the 12 inch box to the black one with 3 plates on top making it 25 inches. If I did not see Daniel and Ollie jump on something that was around the height of the picture above I would not believe it. It truly was impressive. The thing that I found the most interesting is how much more one is capable of then one thinks. It just takes that first Lemming to get the entire heard motivated. Thank you Jack for being that first Lemming.