Evil Airplane Germs....

Ok, so I now understand why Mary won't fly within 2 weeks of her A race (unless she has to in order to get to the race!). Airplanes have evil germs! I was fine all weekend, but apparently it was that last flight from Austin back to Chicago that did me in! Woke up yesterday feeling terrible with my throat on fire. So I still haven't been able to make it back to CrossFit. That's a whole week off now! I miss it!

I'm trying to get enough sleep and drinks lots of water with a Vitamin Water thrown in for good measure in hopes that I'll get better soon. I don't like being sick. And for some reason being sick in the summer seems so much worse!

Grr....stupid airplane germs....

I'm a bad blogger...

Yes, I'm bad at this lately. It's been a busy couple of days. Flew out to Dallas on Wednesday, lots of work mainly until yesterday when I arrived in Austin!! Hooray! It's been far too long. But it's also far too hot here! Seriously, they have had 47 days of triple digits this year, and that number is only continuing to grow. As much as I love it here, that's kind of ridiculous, and I don't do well with heat. Which is why today's schedule will probably include time in the pool along with time in the A/C! :)

The only sad part about being out here is that I'm missing CrossFit. Yes, my addiction is bad. I keep checking the WOD's and see all the fun I'm missing out on. Back at it as soon as I'm home though!!

Oh yeah, and last weekend I was at the Tour of Elk Grove all weekend. I promised to blog about it, but that hasn't happened yet. Here are the highlights.

• Saturday was cold and rainy!! Who would think you would need jeans and a hoodie on August 1st??
• Sunday was so much better! Sunny, 80 degrees, barely and humidity. Perfect!
• I had a great time "working" Sunday - who doesn't love getting paid to hang out, talk to people about bikes, watch some great racing, and have access to the VIP tent.
• Got so close to Floyd Landis and Chris Horner! I seriously could have reached out and pet Chris during the call-ups, but I was a good girl, and I didn't

That's about it! Happy weekend everyone! :)

The blue band!!

Oops, looks like I have forgotten to blog since last Tuesday. What can I say, I've been busy! had a fantastic weekend...but I'll save that for a different post, this one is all about CrossFit! Woo hoo!

Today's WOD:
21-15-9 of
Pull-ups
Sumo Dead Lift High Pull (SDLHP)
Back extensions
800m run

Time 15:something....I didn't listen closely to coach....I was too busy walking over to the mat to collapse - and of course start stretching! :)

The big accomplishment of today (drumroll please)...I graduated to the blue assist band instead of the green! Woo hoo!! That's the last step before I start doing pull-ups without the band. Yes! Still have some practice to do before I reach that goal, but I'm working on the kipping motion, so I hope to be able to do at least a few at some point in the future.

I can also tell that my "dead leg" issue from last week is starting to get better. Finally! It started on Thursday last week and basically my left leg goes all tingly and feels "dead" when I try to run. I think I have narrowed down the cause to something in my hip flexor. Lots of stretching is in order! But today it didn't start bothering me until about 500m into the run, which is definitely an improvement over Friday when it started almost immediately!

Making Progress!

Learning new things...

Today's WOD was a clean and jerk workout, my last attempt at doing cleans was not so great, and kind of crushed my CrossFit confidence. So when I saw it written on the board today, I was not super excited. But there is no wimping out in CrossFit, so I knew I had to try even though I wanted to do anything else, anything!

The workout looked like this:
1 clean/jerk in the first minute
2 clean/jerk in minute 2
etc.....

I made it through 6 minutes!! Probably could have done 7 in a row right away, but after minute 6 I dropped the bar and bent one of the bumper plates, and lost some time while coach jumped in to fix it. After resting for a minute I did complete 7 reps in 1 minute. After that my back said no more, so I was smart and I stopped.

It felt so great to get the rythym of the clean motion though! I think with the heavy weight I was doing last time I tried to think about it too much, with the limited time I just had to do it, and I did! :) Woo hoo!!

Turns out that yesterday I had the 2nd highest score for the women on the WOD even though I did 5 extra squats per round. If only I could have followed the directions.... oh well! :)

And Lance makes me laugh....apparently he came across AC's comments that I mentioned in my last blog post, his response (through Twitter of course - Lance is a Twitter fanatic!):

"hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team". what did I say in March? Lots to learn. Restated."

Lance also made a comment that Alberto really should be focused on thanking the team and not making stupid comments. Yes he's a phenomenal rider, but if he keeps building this reputation he's starting, teams are going to think twice about picking him up.

Seriously Contador??

Does Contador really think that statements like this will help his career, or help make people like him more?

"My relationship with Lance Armstrong is non-existent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will." - Contador

I understand they had a strained relationship as they both vied for the yellow jersey, but statements like that are completely unnecessary. Lance is being gracious and stating that the best man won, why can't Contador show a little class and at least just follow Thumper's rule? If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. (Seriously, all you really need to know you can learn from Bambi!)

He's certainly crossing the confidence line over to cocky and arrogant....and he's not gaining any points in my book. Way to go.

Oh yeah, and apparently my brain doesn't work all that well at 5:30 in the morning. The workout that I detailed below...well I apparently decided that it would be better if I did an additional 70 squats just for fun. Apparently it was supposed to be 15 squats per round....not 20. Oh well, my legs will thank me eventually, but probably not tomorrow.

And now I'm back....

I'm back! (I hope!) I'm finally getting back in action after almost a week of nursing the back injury (and by nursing I mean suffering through work and then coming home and laying on the couch unable to move without pain....it was awesome.)

I went out for a run Sunday morning. Perfect day. The run didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but I guess that's to be expected after not running at all for over a week. Made it through 4 miles, and that's when the back reminded me that maybe I should come back slowly. That idea flew out the window when I went to CrossFit this morning though! I'm feeling good so far, just some general muscle soreness (no injury type soreness), but muscle soreness should be expected after making it through this!!

"Cindy"
AMRAP :20 (as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes)
5 pull-ups (assisted with the band)
10 push-ups (first 6 rounds were all military, after that I did 5 military and 5 "girl push-ups")
20 squats

Score: 14 5/6 - yes I am being that exact. I only made it through half of the squats on the 15th round, but they still needed to count for something!!

So glad to be back and getting back at it. As much as I often wish I could just lay on the couch instead of going out for the workout, it sucks when you aren't given the choice!!

On the DL....

And in this case....DL stands for disabled list. :( Monday's deadlifts made my lower back sore, but I was feeling ok when I tackled the Tuesday back squat WOD. I even felt good enough to throw in a short run and some pull-ups at the end of it. But when I got home, I realized something was wrong! So I have spent the past few days unable to move without pain. So that meant no CrossFit, no running, no riding, no nothing.... I'm going crazy!! Tuesday and Wednesday I was ok with sitting on the couch after work, just because it hurt so much. But as of yesterday and today, I'm just starting to go nuts. I know it's still not healed, there is still some pain there, so I know that I need to continue the rest. I really don't want to take chances with my back, it's kind of important. But I'm really, really hoping that I will wake up feeling fantastic tomorrow morning and can head out for a ride or run. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

2009 ACL Fest schedule!

That's right...the schedule is out! Unfortunately it looks like some tough decisions will have to be made that weekend....I hate that!

WOD and Crowie!!

Ok, first off...today's WOD, what a way to start a new week of CrossFit!!

21-15-9 of:
Deadlift (135#)
Kettle Bell swings (30#)
Wall Ball shots (16#)

Time: 13:15 - and the first person to finish was.....wait for it......ME!!! Woo hoo! There were 4 of us this morning, and the 2 ladies finished 1st and 2nd! Way to go us!

Tonight is the Craig Alexander event put on by my friends at Runner's High n' Tri! I'm super excited, and I'm not even a triathlete. I'm hearing rumors that they will be raffling off some of his stuff so hopefully I come home with something good! :) Should be a fun night...my friend Becki is going with me, and I know that lots of other fun people will be there. Let's just hope I'm not hobbling around like an 80 year old after this morning's work-out!! I plan on taking frequent "walk around so my muscles don't completely tighten up" breaks today at work.

Happy Monday everyone!

Today's WOD....it was awesome!

I needed a good one after yesterday...and I got it! Woo hoo....back to loving CrossFit! :)

WOD (made up on the spot by Coach Jim since the main WOD called for 30 muscle-ups....ha ha, I don't think so)
50 wall ball shots (16# ball)
40 push-ups
30 kettle bell swings
20 waiter's walk lunges (hold the kettle bell above your heaad with one arm - 10 w/ right arm, 10 w/ left arm)
10 box jumps (on our awesome giant tractor tire!)
400m run

Time: 12:01

The 50 wall ball shots right off the bat wore me out! So I was pushing for the entire 12 minutes. I tried to "sprint" the last 100m of the run and got back into the gym and laid out on the floor! So exhausted, but it felt awesome.

I'm on a total CrossFit high this morning! Although it could also have something to do with the delicious conconction that I made afterwards, involving some Starbucks iced coffee and my chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast! Mmmm.... soo good!