My Better is Better..

..Than YOUR Better..

Another great Nike commercial..

Kip Progress..

In the meantime, I found a local school playground where I could practice my Kipping pull-ups.. the cracked, bleeding skin on my hands seems to go through phases of semi-healing, but have yet to toughen up enough for me to spend as much time as I want/need to on my Kip..

WOD today is a repeat from last month, but a gooder:

WOD

4 Rounds, for time:

Run 400m

20 Burpees

I’m at Day 34 in my “100 Day Burpee Challenge”, so I am allowing the burpees from today’s WOD to count..

I’m eating clean and lean tonight, and planning my meals for the work week, hoping to notice improvements in my recovery post-workout..

Cheers!

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How Do You Train?

Inspiring Nike Commercial..

I love this commercial, it’s a great reminder that excellence in sport and fitness comes from working hard, and training day in and day out.

I’m at Day 25 of the 100-Day Burpee Challenge, and I’m happy to say that I’ve completed the burpees almost every day.. the occasional lapses in discipline were made up the day after..

As far as my nutrition goes, well, I got off to a great start but have recently suffered from a combination of too many summer barbeques and laziness in that department.. it’s amazing, though, because after I eat junk, I can feel my body craving nutrient-rich food.. I’ve noticed the difference in my training in that my energy has gone down and my recovery times have been slower.

Needless to say, it’s back on the wagon for me!

Check out this inspiring CrossFitter - “The Pie”

Cheers!

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“L’il Kelly”

WOD:

6 Rounds, for time:

200m Run

15 Wall Balls

15 Box Jumps

I can’t imagine doing a “full Kelly” after this one, which is apparently double everything x 5 rounds.. ugh! Some day, I will be there, I know - finishing one CrossFit workout and then ready for another hit the next day. But right now, I’m all about the bath salts.. ;o)

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When The Going Gets Tough..

Push..

Oh, my aching bones and muscles and tendons and everything in between!! After an intense workout yesterday, my body is letting me know that it’s not used to this kind of hard work!

I started off with a warm-up of Tabata Squats (wrecked my quads!), then progressed to work on the technical components of the Kipping Pull-Up (wrecked my hands!), and then Clean-and-Jerks.

My actual workout took place after all of this (after a liberal application of tape on the shredded hands), and consisted of:

3 Rounds:

21 Clean-and-Jerks (Full C&J, switching to hang-squat-cleans in the 2nd round)

400m Run

My whole body hurts today, but even as I complain about it, I know it is a good thing.. I’m sore from working hard, and from pushing my body past what I had previously thought its limits were!

If my Coach hadn’t given me such an insane workout to complete, there’s no way I would have come up with  that workout on my own! I would have set my limits much lower than what Coach did.

So.. getting results means doing CrossFit (and pushing my limits) on a regular basis.. with that in mind, it’s time for another WOD, this one is again courtesy of Eva T:

4 rounds:

Run 400m

20 Burpees

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“Dirty 30″

WOD:

30 squats

30 sit-ups

30 KB swings

30 Box Jumps

30 Burpees

30 Wall Balls

Yeah, it looks easy until you get to the box jumps.. ;o)

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“Do or do not.. there is no try” ~ Yoda

WOD, Courtesy of Eva T..

WOD

5 Rounds, for time:

10 Push-Ups

10 Squats

Run 200m

(From Ski Eva T’s site)

Eva’s Blog is also on my blogroll, her site is a great resource for CrossFit workouts that don’t require equipment.

Plus, she’s in phenomenal shape, which is also an inspiration!

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Nike “No Excuses” Commercial..

..Featuring Warhawk Matt Scott

Now how’s that for inspirational! No more excuses for me in my attempts to procrastinate from day 3 of my 100 Day Burpee Challenge (okay, 3 is pretty manageable!) or from my workout of the day.

My WOD today was simple but not easy.. never let the simplicity of the CrossFit workout fool you!

WOD

3 Rounds (for time) of:

Run 800m

100 Squats

I’m staying relatively true to a Paleo/Zone hybrid diet, with small cheats here and there. The longer I eat paleo (I hear), the less I will crave the junk/sugar that I do now.. here’s hoping!

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Handstands & L-Sits..

The Last Time I Tried to Do A Handstand..

..I was a kid! Gymnastics lessons were a loooong time ago, and even then, I don’t remember being all that skillful with the handstands..

The technical part of my CrossFit workout today included the basics on handstands and “L-Sits” (on the parallettes).

For the handstand, I practiced against the wall, and as my coach said, there’s “tight” and then there’s “Gymnast tight”. For the handstand, you need to be tight all over! It was challenging but enjoyable, I love learning new things, and I could feel improvement even in my second attempt. On the first attempt, it was like I had to convince my mind that my body wanted to be upside down.

The L-Sits are where you support yourself on two parallel bars (with the more difficult progression being the rings) and bring your legs up from underneath you and straight out in front of you, in an “L” shape, hence the name of the exercise. Then you have to hold the “L” position. And there is where the difficulty lies!

The workout included a 1000m row, 50 Thrusters (30#), and 30 pull-ups (jumping). My forearms have no feeling left in them!

I feel drained and exhilarated at the same time. Wonder what the next workout will bring??

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To Burpee or Not to Burpee..

..That is the Question!

I came across the CrossFit Santa Cruz “100 Day Burpee Challenge” today.

They started on July 14th, but I think I’ll start my challenge today.. essentially, you do one burpee on day one, two on day two, etc. until you reach one hundred burpees on day 100.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it! The burpee is another one of my nemeses, it never seems to get any easier.. the burpee for this 100-day challenge is the proper burpee, with the push-up at the bottom. Ugh.

For a demo of a proper (Burgener) burpee, click on the link to Santa Cruz CF above, or go to the main CrossFit site (link on my Blogroll).

I’ve started today, so Day 1 is done.

Day 50 (for me) will be Wednesday, September 17th..

Day 100 will be Thursday, November 6th.

Wish me luck..

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Paleo This..

The Fridge Is Now Paleo-Friendly..

It’s strange how many condiments I had collected without really realizing it.. I’ve done a major clean-up in the fridge and cupboards, and I’m making my way through Cordain’s “The Paleo Diet for Athletes”. Interesting read, especially the timing and content of meals.

From what I understand, a lot of athletes/CrossFitters tend to follow a hybrid Paleo/Zone diet. Since I’m not quite willing to give up on cottage cheese or on the occasional slice of whole wheat bread, I’ll see how the application works for me..

Any meal ideas/advice is welcome! :o)

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