WODs & Well-Being

June 10, 2012

June 9, 2012 Today I was thrilled and honored to participate in a world wide CrossFit even called CrossFit for Hope. This is one of the perfect examples of why I love being a part of such a wonderful community. Anyone who wanted to participate could, all skill levels. The event continues through the whole month of June however June 9 th is the “official” CrossFit for Hope day. K and M planned to run two heats at the gym and we all arrived to participate! The workout was three rounds: Burpees 75 pound Power snatch Box jump, 24" box 75 pound Thruster Chest to bar Pull-ups 1 min of rest (one minute at each station keeping consecutive count of reps at each, final score is total reps for all three rounds) I had sent out a sponsor page two days ago and was THRILLED with the responses and generosity of the donations! Anyone who wanted to donate could link right to my page and donate a flat rate or per rep! I had set a pretty high goal for myself at 200 reps. Not s

June 8, 2012 Ever do something so many times it feels like you can do it in your sleep? You get so use to doing something the same way that if someone/something was to throw a wrench into it and it feels like its completely thrown off? I remember when I learned to roller-skate at a young age. I went from those little plastic fisher price skates that you clipped over your shoes… to the perfect white skates with a little strip of color over the toes that my Papa bought me (of course that was after he bought me a pair of red and white ones that I had to return because they were both the same foot… oh what a memory). I was pretty good, skated a lot with my friends in the neighborhood, my cousins and friends at roller kingdom (which is actually still there and still looks exactly the same). Finally there came a day when I decided that I was going to transition to roller blades. It was the “cool” thing to do and since my brother had a pair I had to get them so I could be just like him, not

June 7, 2012 Ahhhh, Thursdays… I get a little extra sleep in the morning and usually wind up running like a mad woman out of the house because I am out of my typical routine!! Wednesday nights are my “late nights” so if I make plans with friends, have an appointment for something or want to stay up late to watch tv or read, that’s the night that I do it! Its nice to have one day that’s a little different from the rest. I try to keep my food intake as “normal” as possible and since I cant kick my healthy crossfit addiction, I make my daily trip to CFW for some good old fashioned “active recovery” work. What, you ask, is “active recovery?” Its pretty important in any training regimen and athletes of all kinds should have some days like this in their training schedule, they are almost as important as total rest days and working days! There have been plenty of studies done on this and some different findings… but over all here is what I have learned. Active recovery is either done ri

June 6, 2012 A few weeks ago I started really honing in on resting during a WOD. When I had my talk with M I realized a few things. Lets start with the negative (because its always fun to end on a positive note). My biggest problem is  mental block that I have, I have had it my whole life and once I get inside my own head I have a really hard time getting out of it. This goes for all things in life, not just WODing… but I will obviously apply it to WODing here. So I get started and I am off like a rocket, I work hard and push  myself as hard as I can, but once I sense myself hitting a wall specifically when it comes to exercises that I seem to struggle with most (usually more on the gymnastics side, pushups, dips, pullups) my confidence lowers and I let myself take a break. In my head I know I can go on, but my mind seems to block it. Thinking about it now, it seems like whenever I have to do something that I can not do “unbroken” that’s when the breaks start to come longer and l

June 5, 2012 As a toddler and small child I was certainly a “pot belly” kid. I stood with my gut out and have many many pictures to prove it! As time went on I became a lanky skinny 10 year old… and that carried me through my early teens. There wasn’t much that I couldn’t eat and never saw a change in my body. I constantly ate cookies and cake for breakfast and couldn’t get enough of any type of sour sugary candy.  Somewhere in my early teens I woke up in the morning and looked at my body and thought… where the hell did those hips come from? All of a sudden not only was I taller than most of my friends (and I am only 5’-8” I just hang out with a bunch of shorties… haha) but I was also much larger than most of them too. I was never considered the “cute little thing” and started feeling pretty out of place. That’s when I started to be self-conscious about my body. Though high school I was pretty thin still, I was happy with my legs, but the hips and ass were dominant for a teenager. I

June 4, 2012 Today was my first day back in the “swing of things” at the gym. I had a conversation with M about my training on last Monday after we did Murph and he recommended that I took a week of rest and recovery. Of course I was in panic mode at the thought of not WODing for a week. Like I was all of a sudden going to lose my steam if I took some time to rest. I just haven’t given my body that much time off in so long I wasn’t sure how I was going to react and first instinct is panic. I know of course that I wasn’t going to actually lose any strength or anything and honestly deep down inside I am happy he told me to do it. Sometimes you need that direction to feel like its “ok.” It also gave me reason to take a step back and look at my training and get ready for the next step. The week off was hard in some ways and really nice in others. As I said I went to the gym at my normal time and warmed up with everyone. I did wind up doing the snatch skill session during the week, be

June 3, 2012 Okay last one...

June 2, 2012   To make it happen, you have to want it to happen… there is no way around that. If you have a goal and you are focused you will succeed. The problem is that there are so many people that want things to happen for them… or wish there was an easier way, a way to cut corners or a “magical” twitch of the nose that will make the goal that they want to achieve complete. It takes time to do things, it takes time to learn things and you have to suffer, struggle and fail in order to succeed. It is not logical to think that just because you want something so bad it is going to happen quickly, but it you want it bad enough and are willing to make sacrifices to get to your goal than you will make it happen. It is so common to hear the words “oh, I could never do that” when I talk to someone about how I have changed my lifestyle. Like the thought of never eating pasta again is just totally foreign to them. I also think they feel like I have put myself in a bubble a

June 1, 2012 WARMUP: 3 Rounds - 1 Min Jump Rope - 5 Ring Rows - 10 Burpees - 15 Squats Run 400m Group: Kipping SKILL/STRENGTH: Mobility. .

May 31, 2012

May 30, 2012 WARMUP: Run 800m 3 Rounds - 5 Pullups - 10 Inchworms - 15 Situps Run 400m Group: Burgner SKILL/STRENGTH: Snatch 3 Snatches on the minute for 10 minutes (85lbs) .

May 29, 2012 I was instructed to take a break from WODing this week... so I deemed it a good week to pay homage to none other than... BACON! Enjoy!! WARMUP: 500m Row 2 Rounds - 10 Back Extensions - 10 Grasshopper - 10 Toy Soldier 250m Row Group: Toes to Bar SKILL/STRENGTH: Mobility .

May 28, 2012 In honor of Memorial Day we are off to CrossFit Wachusett to complete Memorial Day "Murph" which is named in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it "Body Armor". From here on it will be referred to as "Murph" in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is. (Crossfit.com) I had stopped over at the WOD Love tent while we were in Canton (and will give them a little “love” on my blog here) and bought my “Heros” t-shirt that I have been trying to win every chance I get on their WOD Love Give-a-ways every Wednesday on the book of faces. I wore it with honor and pride to the gym today! This workout touched me more than I was expecting it to. I feel that it is such an honor that

May 27, 2012 To wrap up a glorious weekend we again arrived to set up for the snatch ladder. This was a CRAZY event both to set up for and to watch! I personally got a great seat for the ladder, as I was asked to be on the field to be sure that the weights stayed tight on the bars between each of the competitors. I had about a 10 second window during the team WOD and maybe a little more than that for the individuals where I had to dart out into the field and reset and tighten the collar on two sets of weights. Insanity! Also very inspirational! The women went first, teams than individuals (for ease of resetting the weights for the men) followed by the men. The teams each had 50 seconds to complete the weight that they were stationed at and could make as many attempts as need, than those who could clear the weight had a 10 second transition time to the next weight where they would go again, the team was still in the competition until all 3 team members were eliminated by not clear

May 26, 2012 Day two of the New England Regional did not disappoint! First of all, HUGE HUGE HUGE kudos to all the athletes who competed in the heat. My god was it hot today.  Reebok did a remarkable job making sure that the athletes had water, coconut water and food and they also had fan misters and ice baths for anyone who wanted to partake after their WODs. I have to say, being a “staff” member for this event was a pleasure. They not only understood that you were there to volunteer, but that you probably wanted to watch what was going on in the WOD’s as well. They were more than happy if you wanted to sit out for an event change out as long as you had someone to “cover your job.” They made sure that we were fed and hydrated throughout he day and even provided sunblock for us which was nice! I will say Friday morning was a little chaotic trying to figure out where people were needed and what we would be doing, but Saturday Hubs and I just returned to where we were on Friday and

May 25, 2012 Today was the first day of the North East Crossfit Regional. A few months ago after competing in the opens and feeling the unbelievable energy within the gym Hubs and I decided we were going to take today off and be sure to witness the entire weekend live. We knew it was something we didn’t want to miss. To top it off K and M both qualified as individuals so we were excited to see our coaches in action! As weeks went by we decided that instead of just attending we wanted to do more, so we signed ourselves up to be volunteers for the weekend! A free ticket into the festivities for the weekend and up close and personal, hands on, in the action FUN! As soon as we got our assignment “athlete relations” for the weekend, we were so excited!! What a sight. Yes, we took the day off from work  (CrossFit Wachusett was closed) and we got up at 4:30am and drove to Canton MA for 7:00am! When we arrived I got all giddy driving up the driveway! First of all, the Reebok facility

May 24, 2012 WARMUP: 3 Rounds - Run 200 - 5 Pushups - 10 Squats - 15 GHD Situps SKILL/STRENGTH: Core Circuit 4 Rounds - 10 Toes to Bar - 20 Weighed Twists - 10 Abmat Situps (2 min rest between rounds) .

May 23, 2012 So here is the deal… a pound is a pound. A pound of feathers weighs exactly the same as a pound of bricks…. There are going to be a hell of a lot more feathers than brick… but a pound is a pound. I am so tired of hearing the phrase “muscle weighs more than fat.” This is not true… a pound of fat weighs a pound… a pound of muscle… weighs what… say it with me now… a POUND. The difference is, the amount of space that is taken up by a pound of muscle is significantly less than that of a pound of fat (think about the brick and feather analogy here). What people mean (I think) when they say that “muscle weighs more than fat” is that you can be a smaller person and weigh more, or the same as a larger person because you may be more muscular than them, that just by looking at someone you cant tell how much muscle they have in a lot of cases. What is really funny is that people often say that, but don’t apply it to themselves.They dont look in the mirror and see the change

May 22, 2012 Ever since I was a little kid I have been adventurous. I would do the things my parents told me not to do, not to disobey them… but because I wanted to see why I was told not to do it. What the consequence would be if I did do it. Almost like it was a challenge that I chose to accept at any chance. “Sarah, don’t touch that” turned quickly into my burning my hand, cutting myself or whatever because I had this horrible urge to touch whatever it was that I was told not to touch simply because I was told NOT to. If no one mentioned it, I wouldn’t have ever wanted to touch it in the first place more than likely. Don’t get me wrong, my parents watched me because they knew this about me… but there was a time and a place for me to learn lessons… they would never put me in danger. I have carried that urge to accept a challenge through my whole life and still, to this day I have a hard time when faced with these types of situations. I have it ingrained in my head that I